Soup residues make up 41% of food waste

Leftovers from traditional Chinese soup make up the bulk of food waste in Hong Kong, a survey found.

煲湯是廣東人的文化，不少港人家庭亦喜愛煲湯，但餘下的湯渣卻造成浪費。

The survey, conducted by the Hong Kong Baptist University's College of International Education, interviewed 603 households on their cooking habits and awareness of food waste. The researchers found that 41.4 percent of the food waste came from soup residues.

香港浸會大學國際學院發布「家居廚餘狀況」調查，訪問了603 戶家庭，了解他們的烹飪習慣，發現有41.4%受訪者指家中廚餘主要是湯渣。

If each of the 2.25 million households in the city makes 2.5 pots of soups per week, there will be 900,000 pots of soup every day and 450 metric tons of soup leftovers will end up as food waste daily, the study estimates.

以全港225萬家庭估計，港人平均每星期煲2.5次湯，等於每日煲90萬次湯，按每次湯渣重500克計算，即每日家庭湯渣重約450公噸。

Nutritionist stressed that nutrition may not completely dissolve in the soup and is therefore wasted in leftovers. Suggested that people cut up the soup ingredients into smaller portions to bring out more flavor and reduce leftovers.

有營養師指煲湯的主要原因是為了汲取湯中營養，只飲湯的話不能夠完全汲取湯中的營養，因為一些蔬菜的高纖維、碳水化合物及肉類蛋白質等食材結構較大，難以溶於湯水，大部分營養仍鎖在湯渣，建議飲湯時把湯渣一起吃掉。

Many people think that the soup residue has no taste and tastes bad. It is recommended that the soup residue can be re-cooked into dishes, such as fried rice, dumplings, etc., to reduce waste, hope that the government can increase citizens’ awareness of the nutrition of food ingredients and cooking methods of food materials and reduce waste.

不少人認為湯渣沒有味道而且口感不佳，建議可將湯渣重新烹調變菜餚，如炒飯、餃子等，減少浪費，並希望政府可以增加市民對食材營養的認知，教育他們有效地汲取食材的營養和烹調方式，減少浪費。