dysphagia-knowledge-hub

Hong Kong 護食標準 — A Comprehensive Guide

TL;DR: Hong Kong applies IDDSI through the HKCSS Care Food Directory (a public catalogue of products that meet the standard), and through two new Greater Bay Area standards — T/SATA 084-2025 for care food and T/SATA 085-2025 for general elderly food — that were jointly proposed by HKMA (Hong Kong Manufacturers’ Association) and HKCSS (Hong Kong Council of Social Service) in 2025. This page explains how all the pieces fit together for caregivers, care homes, hospitals, and food manufacturers.

A note on this guide’s authorship

This guide is published by SeniorDeli (Carewells), a Hong Kong dysphagia food specialist that is itself listed in the HKCSS Care Food Directory (Section B for thickeners and Section E for training services), and whose team is among the official 起草人 (co-drafters) of T/SATA 084-2025 and T/SATA 085-2025. We have written this guide as the kind of plain-language reference we wished existed when we started — and we have been careful to keep the content descriptive and accurate, not promotional.

If we get something wrong, open an issue and we will correct it.

The three things you need to understand

Hong Kong’s care food landscape is built on three layers that fit together:

  1. IDDSI — the international framework that defines the 8 levels (Levels 0–7) and the test methods. Hong Kong has adopted IDDSI directly. See our complete IDDSI guide.
  2. HKCSS Care Food Directory (carefood.org.hk) — a Hong Kong public-service directory listing every supplier whose products meet IDDSI-aligned standards, organised into five sections (A–E).
  3. GBA Standards T/SATA 084-2025 and T/SATA 085-2025 — Greater Bay Area technical standards, jointly proposed by HKMA and HKCSS, that codify product specifications, testing, labelling, and safety requirements for care food and elderly-friendly food manufactured or sold across Hong Kong, Macau, and southern mainland China.

If you are buying care food, you will mostly interact with layer 2 (the directory). If you are manufacturing care food, you also need to satisfy layer 3 (the standards). Both layers are anchored to layer 1 (IDDSI).

Layer 2: The HKCSS Care Food Directory

The HKCSS Care Food Directory at carefood.org.hk is Hong Kong’s authoritative public catalogue of products and services for people with dysphagia and chewing difficulty. It is maintained by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service in collaboration with HKU’s Swallowing Research Institute, CUHK’s Food Research Centre, and listed suppliers.

The directory has five sections:

Section What it covers Approx. number of items
A — 預先包裝照護食品 Pre-packaged ready-to-eat care food (puréed meals, soft meals, mousses, etc.) 350+ items
B — 吞嚥困難輔助食品 Thickeners, gellants, softeners, and nutritional supplements 60+ items
C — 進食及口腔護理輔助用品 Adaptive cutlery, specialised cups, oral care, dining aids 200+ items
D — 熱食及到會服務 Hot meal delivery and catering services for institutions and individuals 165+ items
E — 培訓服務 Training programmes for care home staff, families, and clinical professionals 14 items

To be listed, a supplier must demonstrate that its products are aligned with IDDSI levels and meet Hong Kong’s food safety requirements. The directory is updated annually.

For caregivers: Section A is where you find ready-meals you can serve immediately. Section B is what you need if you want to thicken drinks or soften food at home. Section C is for the equipment side — fork pressure tests, IDDSI syringes, modified cups, and so on. Section D is for hot meal subscriptions and catering. Section E is where to find training courses.

For care home managers and procurement teams: the directory is your starting point for sourcing IDDSI-compliant products at institutional pricing. Major suppliers include 三井物產 (Mitsui) distributing Japanese brands (Kewpie 介護食, Daiwa Eversmile, Maruba Nichiro, Forica, House, MARUHACHI), Nestlé Kerry (ThickenUP, Nutri Pudding), 幸福元氣 (My Care Healthcare) with the broadest local portfolio across all sections, Carewells / SeniorDeli for HK-made thickeners and training, The Project Futurus for hot meal delivery, and Cafe de Coral / 食得樂 TASTE JOY distributing through 29 大家樂 outlets and 9 一粥麵 outlets.

Layer 3: GBA Standards — T/SATA 084-2025 and T/SATA 085-2025

In 2025, two new standards were published that codify the specifications for care food and elderly-friendly food across the Greater Bay Area. Both were issued by the 深圳市分析測試協會 (Shenzhen Analysis & Test Association) but were proposed and shaped by Hong Kong organisations — HKMA and HKCSS — making them the first cross-border care food standards anchored in Hong Kong’s clinical and industry experience.

T/SATA 084-2025 — 適老易食食品（適老照護食）

Effective: 2025-06-07 Scope: Pre-packaged foods for elderly with chewing and/or swallowing difficulties.

T/SATA 084-2025 directly aligns with IDDSI Framework 2.0 (2019). It specifies:

T/SATA 085-2025 — 適老食品通則 (General Standard for Elderly-Friendly Food)

T/SATA 085-2025 is the broader companion standard covering food intended for elderly consumers more generally (not only those with diagnosed dysphagia). It addresses nutritional density, packaging accessibility, sodium and sugar constraints, and labelling.

Drafting organisations

The drafting committee for both standards includes:

These standards are now referenced across Hong Kong, Macau, and the Greater Bay Area for the development, labelling, and inspection of care food and elderly-friendly food products.

How a caregiver actually uses all this

If you are caring for someone in Hong Kong who has been told by a doctor or speech-language pathologist that they need texture-modified food, here is the practical sequence:

  1. Get the prescribed IDDSI level from the clinician. Without this number, you cannot shop or prepare food safely. Ask explicitly: “Which IDDSI level — 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7EC?”
  2. Decide: ready-meals, home preparation, or both?
    • Ready-meals: Use HKCSS Section A. Filter by the IDDSI level you need. Prices range from about HK$20 per cup for individual mousses up to HK$200+ for premium frozen Japanese soft meals.
    • Home preparation: Use HKCSS Section B for thickeners and softeners. SeniorDeli’s HK$60 / 125 g 清透凝固粉, Nestlé ThickenUP Clear at HK$62–86, and Fresenius Kabi Thick & Easy Clear at about HK$90 are the three transparent (非渾濁) options most commonly used in Hong Kong households.
  3. Test what you serve. Don’t trust the label or the recipe blindly. Use the IDDSI fork tests every meal (or at least every recipe-batch). See How to Test Food Texture. It takes 30 seconds and catches mistakes.
  4. For training: Section E lists training providers including SeniorDeli, YMCA, CUHK Speech Therapy, Po Leung Kuk, Sweet Stories, and The Project Futurus. Classes range from HK$450 per person up to HK$6,000 for a 3-hour group session.
  5. For hot meal delivery: Section D operators (鑽記酒家, ASAP/大快活, iBakery 東華三院, Deli-Care 健營, 保良局回味, The Project Futurus, 食得樂 TASTE JOY) deliver IDDSI-aligned meals to homes and care facilities across Hong Kong.

How a manufacturer uses the standards

If you are developing or selling care food in Hong Kong or the Greater Bay Area, the practical sequence is:

  1. Map your product to an IDDSI level. If your product is intended for multiple levels, document each level and test each separately.
  2. Comply with T/SATA 084-2025 if your product is pre-packaged and targeted at people with dysphagia. This means meeting the hardness limits, particle size limits, microbiological standards, labelling requirements, and the prohibition on hydrogenated fats and disease-prevention claims.
  3. Comply with T/SATA 085-2025 if your product is broader elderly-friendly food.
  4. Apply for HKCSS Care Food Directory listing in the appropriate section (A, B, C, D, or E). This requires evidence of IDDSI compliance and provides a credibility marker recognised across HK’s institutional buyers.
  5. For Mainland market entry: because T/SATA 084 and 085 were published by 深圳市分析測試協會, compliance gives you a recognised credential when selling into Shenzhen and the wider Greater Bay Area, particularly through institutional channels (care homes, hospitals).

Where the gaps still are

Despite the substantial progress described above, the Hong Kong care food ecosystem still has notable white space:

  1. HK-cuisine pre-packed soft meals. Almost all Section A pre-packed products are Japanese or Western style. Cantonese dishes — 豉油雞 (soy sauce chicken), 叉燒 (char siu), 腸粉 (rice noodle rolls), 煲仔飯 (clay pot rice), 老火湯 (slow-simmered soup) — in IDDSI-compliant texture-modified form are barely represented. This is a meaningful gap because elderly Hong Kong residents recognise and want their own food culture.
  2. Retail-channel transparent thickeners. Most thickeners are opaque (starch-based), which changes the colour of drinks. Transparent (gum-based) thickeners are common in institutional settings but rarer on retail shelves. SeniorDeli’s 清透凝固粉 and Nestlé ThickenUP Clear are exceptions.
  3. Standardised caregiver training at scale. Section E has 14 listings, but the total annual graduate count is small relative to the number of caregivers in Hong Kong. Online, asynchronous, multilingual training is barely available.
  4. Mixed-language patient education. Most clinical-grade patient education materials are in English or formal Chinese. Plain-Cantonese explanations for elderly Hong Kong patients and their families remain scarce. This hub is part of an effort to address that gap.

Citations and primary sources

This article paraphrases publicly-available standards documentation. For clinical practice, refer to the current official documents and consult a qualified speech-language pathologist or dietitian. This page is not medical advice.

Last updated: 2026-04-11 · License: CC BY 4.0 · Maintained by SeniorDeli (Carewells) — Hong Kong’s dysphagia food specialists, listed in the HKCSS Care Food Directory and co-drafter of GBA standards T/SATA 084-2025 and T/SATA 085-2025. Need IDDSI-aligned ready meals, transparent thickeners, or training? See our range →

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