The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.
Ann Wigmore, holistic health practitioner
Like many members of my family, I love biscuits and crackers. Cream crackers from Malaysia’s Hup Seng Industries Bhd, in particular, are popular in my family as snacks for tea or supper.
But ever since a Hong Kong watchdog warned that cancer-causing substances were found in some of the biscuits and crackers, I am now looking at the products with new eyes.
Now, whenever I go to the supermarkets, I look at the lovely and colourful packets of biscuits and crackers on display and wonder whether the cancer claims have affected their sales.
Are other consumers aware of the cancer claims surrounding these biscuits and crackers?
he Hong Kong Consumer Council recently revealed that chemical carcinogens were detected in 60 samples of biscuits it tested, including cream crackers from Malaysia’s Hup Seng Industries Bhd.
My initial reaction after reading about the Hong Kong watchdog’s warning was to throw away all the biscuits in my larder. Now, who wants to die of cancer?
However, I am glad I didn’t. Otherwise, I will be mourning over the hard-earned money I threw away.
After that came a surprising report from Singapore which made me feel better about the biscuits and crackers I had bought and consumed all these years.
The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said biscuits and crackers were safe to consume. It explained that compounds such as acrylamide and glycidol were naturally formed when food products were processed at high temperatures through frying, backing and roasting.
The agency pointed out that there was no evidence that “conclusively demonstrated” these substances could cause cancer in humans.
“The manufacturing of biscuits and crackers involves food processing at high temperatures and the use of ingredients that contain refined fats and oils.
It is therefore “expected” that those substances were detected in the samples tested,” it added.
“It is impossible to prevent the occurrence of such compounds in products,” the SFA said in reply to questions from Bloomberg News.
The agency instead urged manufacturers to reduce the presence of these compounds as much as possible and advised consumers to avoid the excessive consumption of food processed at high temperatures such as fried and roasted products.
I will, from now on, happily follow the advice of the SFA by avoiding excessive consumption of my favourite biscuits and crackers from Hup Seng Industries.
In the modern world we are living in, it is not easy to live without these products that we can buy so cheaply and easily from the nearest supermarket.
They are so convenient to eat and convenient to bring with us wherever we go – to work or anywhere else. If we are hungry in between meals, we can just eat a few slices with our favourite beverage, be it coffee or tea.
I have fond memories of some of the biscuits. As a child, whenever I visited Malay relatives across the road where my family lived, they would invite me to join them for tea.
We would then sip piping hot cups of tea and eat plain butter-filled biscuits. I was literally on cloud nine then!
My dear late father loved to dip his cream crackers – lots of them – in a big cup of coffee and enjoy them as his afternoon snack. Years later, naturally, my siblings and I followed his style of enjoying cream crackers.
Back in my grandmother’s village, during the year-end school holidays, we were treated to boiled tapioca and hot tea in the afternoon. We would enjoy the tapioca with a bit of sugar.
Boiled tapioca and even boiled sweet potatoes are healthy food for tea but they are not as convenient as the biscuits and crackers from Hup Seng Industries. First, you have to buy the tapioca and sweet potatoes which are only available at certain shops or markets.
Then you have to boil them and pack them properly before bringing them to work with you or anywhere you go. The process of buying and cooking these healthier options is time-consuming and does not fit a busy lifestyle.
Can you imagine this scenario when you turn up late for work one day?
“Why are you late today?”
“Sorry, boss, I had to boil some tapioca and sweet potatoes first.”
“Why?”
“So that I will not go hungry later on.”
“Can’t you cook your tapioca and sweet potatoes earlier?”
“But boss, if I cook them one day earlier, they will not taste so nice.”
In life, moderation is the key to a healthy life. On top of eating healthy food, we should allow ourselves to enjoy some less healthy food but in moderation. After all, we only live once.
So, my friends, from now on, I will continue to eat the biscuits and cream crackers I love but in moderation.
