Prevalence of missing nutrition label and ingredients list information on e‐shops of major chain supermarkets in Hong Kong.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, online food purchases have increased. Nutrition labels and ingredients lists are important to assist individuals in making healthy food choices, but their provision is not mandatory for online stores in Hong Kong. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of missing nutrition labels and ingredients list information on the e‐shops of major chain supermarkets in Hong Kong. Data from the e‐shops of four major chain supermarkets were collected using a bespoke web scraper program, which extracted the product page link, product name, brand, package size, ingredient list in text and product image links of every edible product available. A total of 22 365 products which were required by law to carry a food label on their packaging were included in the analysis. Prevalence of missing nutrition label or ingredients list on the respective product page was determined. Pearson's χ2 tests were used to test for differences in the prevalence between retailers. A two‐tailed p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Two e‐shops provided nutrition labels and ingredients list for none or only a negligible number of products. Overall, the prevalence of missing information was higher for nutrition labels than for ingredients lists (80.5% vs. 70.2%; p < 0.001). Provision of information varied greatly between stores and food categories. We found a high prevalence of missing nutrition labels and ingredients lists on e‐shops of major supermarkets in Hong Kong. Regulations on nutrition labelling should be extended to cover pre‐packaged food and beverages sold online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]