living costs & avoiding PRC food

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    Smile living costs & avoiding PRC food

    Hi guys

    Thanks for all your help on my many queries thus far. Another one for you:

    How easy is it to avoid eating PRC produce? Are things clearly labelled and do most supermarkets/grocery stores stock sufficient non-PRC food?

    I am assuming that if I eat out "locally" (ie at noodle shops, street corners, anything not Michelin starred ...) - which I WILL want to do when I'm in HK - I will have to consume some PRC produce. However, when doing home grocery shopping, I will try to buy non PRC produce.

    Is this even feasible?

    And if so, approx how many % more expensive is non PRC food produce? (e.g. imported organic meats, non-PRC staples (milk, eggs, etc) plus some more exotic meats on occassion e.g. wild salmon, prosciutto, jamon iberico, etc??)

    Any ball park estimates would be most helpful.

    (ps: am not too fussed about provenance of non food products - although if you think I should be - do shout )

    Cheers.


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Apr 2005
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    check out:
    south stream seafood
    meatmarket.com.hk (i think?)

    they both have websites.

    park'n'shop & wellcome also have websites.

    you CAN eat entirely from imported foods, but your bill will be MUCH higher! a litre of milk (from australia) will set you back about $25-30. eggs are often from the USA and are about $20/dozen. if you want free-range, then easily double that.

    most "western" fruits, apples & oranges are from north america, bananas from philippines, etc.

    hk actually has a fairly decent selction if you consider it's location and the fact that 95% of the population are hk chinese.


  3. #3

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    forgot to mention that you can also check out aussie organics. they'll deliver right to your door a weekly set amount of fresh organic produce flown in from.... oh, i'll let you figure that one out! LOL!


  4. #4

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    what's wrong with 'PRC' produce? pretty much everything in hong kong comes from there anyway.


  5. #5

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    I can see why you might want to avoid the meat if you're concerned about animal welfare issues (in which case avoid all the Dutch stuff as well) but the PRC vegetables are also a lot cheaper, probably more environmentally friendly if you take freight into account and taste better (IMHO).

    If you're totally adamant about avoiding PRC then Marketplace and City Super have the best selections.


  6. #6

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    I guess the concern is contamination with drugs, and chemicals more than animal (or plant) welfare. One thing to be aware of is that the HK Food and Environmental Health Department does check every batch of animals brought into HK for slaughter for 44 chemicals that they don't want in there, so there is a somewhat more rigorous regime than on the mainland.


  7. #7

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    For produce, you can get locally grown organic stuff delivered to your door every week.


  8. #8

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    Yes as said above the concern is not with welfare but what meat has been pumped full off - hormones, according to my long term HK resident cooking teacher.

    She said buy imported meat and fish (local sea very polluted) but local fruit and veg are of course fine, just make sure you wash them as you would anywhere to get sprayed chemicals off.

    Of course you will need to avoid eating out much too, if you're really concerned about what's in the food!


  9. #9

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    Thanks guys for all the useful info and I will look up the websites mentioned as well.

    I guess the immediate concern is the accuracy of food labelling, use of hormones and chemicals, quality of the produce itself (organic free range vs battery farming). This applies both to livestock imported to HK for slaughter as well as food products packaged / canned / bottled in China.

    The EU has tried to clamp down on products which contain excessive levels of chemicals and there have also be instances of inaccurate labelling. A uni mate of mine who is a trained vet and is now an exec director running a division of a large global food producer has first hand experience of food production / farming / marketing methods incl in Asia.

    Beanieskis is absolutely spot on re eating out - but I guess we can only control what we can control - if its not prohibitively expensive.

    Of course there are also those that say what doesn't kill you ... and I've consumed some fairly exotic cuisine in my travels ...


  10. #10

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    Most of the stuff I buy in supermarkets actually doesn't seem to be from China (as I thought it would before I came). Lots of veg is from USA, dairy from Aus or NZ, Eggs from USA or Thailand. However, when it comes to manufactured/packaged foods (like frozen dumplings and such) it is mostly from China.

    Labeling isn't great here. Whenever I try to see where something came from that doesn't state it clearly, all I tend to find is 'This product was packaged in Fo Tan, N.T, Hong Kong'. Yes... fair enough but where did it COME from!?!


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