The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) and the Consumer
Council conducted a joint study on table salt and cooking salt with an
aim to assess the safety of salt available in Hong Kong. There are recent
public concerns on the possibility of abuse of industrial salt as food-grade
salt. Since salt is commonly considered as a vehicle for iodine fortification
for the general population, this study also examined the level of iodine
in salt in Hong Kong.
2. A total of 74 salt samples, including 59 prepackaged and 15 non-prepackaged
ones, were collected from different retail outlets and grocery stores throughout
the territory in September 2004. The samples were sent to the Food Research
Laboratory of FEHD for analysis of the levels of five metallic contaminants
(namely, arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead and mercury), sodium chloride content
and iodine content. The results were compared with ˇ§Codex Standard on Food
Grade Saltˇ¨.
3. All the salt samples were not detected with the five metallic contaminants.
This suggested that there is no evidence of abuse of industrial salt as
food-grade salt in Hong Kong. As for the sodium chloride content, Codex
has set a compositional and quality factor for food-grade salt. Of the
74 samples, 64 (86%) were found to meet this composition and quality factor
of at least 97% sodium chloride. For the 10 prepackaged salt samples that
contained less than 97% of sodium chloride, they were found to contain
other minerals such as sulphates which are of little toxicity implication.
4. Concerning iodine fortification, three products were found labelled
as iodised salt and the level of iodine detected in these samples were
31, 36 and 43 mg/kg respectively. One prepackaged sample without labelling
iodisation was found to contain very low level of iodine at 1.7 mg/kg which
may be naturally occurring. Pregnant and lactating women who are more prone
to suffer from iodine deficiency could eat iodine-rich foods. If indicated,
they could also choose iodised salt as an alternative dietary source of
iodine. However, they should seek advice from health professionals beforehand.
The trade is also advised to label iodised salt products properly so as
to let consumers make informed choices.
Last
revision date: 16-04-2005