About 18 months ago, the government introduced new legislation about nutritional labelling. There was a lot of fuss made about all the products that would disappear from Hong Kong supermarkets because they claimed to be low in fat or whatever.
At the time, I suggested that there was an easy solution:
Surely it must be possible to use a sticker to obscure the claims that are not allowed? Given that imported products already have locally added labels of one sort of another, this doesn’t sound like too much of a problem.
Well, here we are in 2010 – and guess what? Yes, it seems that AS Watson (owners of Park’n’Shop) have invested in some black marker pens to stop us reading that Rice Krispies Multi-Grain Shapes are high in calcium, vitamins and iron.
I’d love to know how many products have totally disappeared from supermarket shelves as a result of this new legislation. I’m guessing that it is hardly any. Products randomly appear and disappear from my local Park’n’Shop so it would be hard to tell if any have gone because of these new rules – but I suspect the big retailers were just crying wolf again.
Ordinary Gweilo 
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