Authorities in Hong Kong have found eating biscuits can cause cancer after the city’s consumer watchdog studied 60 different biscuits.

The biscuits were pre-packed and had cancer-causing substances called glycidol and acrylamide both chemicals are carcinogens and have shown to induce cancer.

Although biscuit manufacturers can use glycidol and acrylamide but there are limits to how much these chemicals can be used. The European Union benchmark for biscuits says acrylamide should be limited to 350 grams for a kg of biscuit which is considered to be a safe limit.

However, regulators found that at least four biscuit brands exceeded the limit. Muji’s sandwich cracker had 620 grams of acrylamide which is almost double the safe limit. Among the carcinogenic biscuits was also Oreo, Marie and Pretz wafers. 

The study also found 56 of the 60 sampled biscuits had what’s called 3 MCPD which is an organic chemical compound. It is known to affect kidneys and male reproductive organs. It is recommended that an adult who weighs about 60 kgs should not consume more than 120 grams of this chemical in a day but some biscuits had 2,000 grams of 3 MCPD for every kg.

At least 33 samples of biscuits were also found to be high fat and 27 samples were high sugar with 13 with high sodium. Forty per cent of the biscuits had misleading nutrition labels.

While the study sampled biscuits found in Hong Kong, its result applies to markets outside too. Biscuits have a high quantity of sugar and fat.

In 2017, India’s consumer education and research centre had found cream biscuits manufactured in the country mostly exceeded the prescribed sugar and fat content which is 25 to 30 gram per kg and 20 grams per 100 kg respectively.

Biscuits also have a high quantity of salt. An average sweet biscuit contains 0.4 grams of salt per 25-gram bag. The fact is too much of salt can put a person at risk of a heart attack. Packed biscuits also have preservatives including colouring agents.

Biscuits may be the most humble snack but it is not necessarily the most healthy snack as some packets promise to be light, some promise they are whole wheat or oatmeal, fibre-rich or sugar-free but these terms are often just marketing gimmicks.

Sugar-free biscuits simply replace sugar with artificial sweeteners. Oatmeal biscuits may contain just about 5 to 10 per cent of oats.

A study was conducted in Sweden among 60,000 women over 10 years found women who ate biscuits more than 2 to 3 times a week were 33 per cent more likely to develop womb cancer. Women who ate biscuits more than three times a week were 42 per cent more likely to develop a tumour.