Chinese New Year Snacks Review 2025

Now that Chinese New Year is behind us, I feel I can give a review of the snacks I’ve tried. While many of these snacks were undeniably delicious, it’s also interesting to assess how they stack up in terms of (un)healthiness.

Honestly, I think there is a bit of irony in wishing people 身体健康 (wish you good health) then shoving unhealthy foods in their face at the same time. I believe we all already know that CNY snacks are unhealthy so … how do we embody the 健康 (healthy) part without giving up on all the fun?

Florentine Mixed Nuts Cookies by BAKES. by Lim

My favourite CNY snack for the season comes from BAKES. by Lim. They didn’t publish an ingredient list but from what I heard, there is no sugar added in their florentine cookies. The sweetness in the cookies is all from the honey that they used. Please contact them to verify if you want to be sure!

I don’t also know what are the exact nuts that go into it but visually I can see some pumpkin seeds, black sesame seeds, sunflower seeds.

Either way, they are absolutely delicious and addictive. If eating whole foods with minimal addictives is important to you, this is definitely a snack to consider having at home or gifting to family and friends. While it is still considerably high in calories, it would, in my opinion, be considered one of the healthier discretionary food choices.

Based on my estimate, a mixed nuts florentine would have between 45 to 53 calories.

Yummy Yummy Belinjo Prawn Crackers

I definitely had belinjo chips before but I never knew that’s what they were called until this CNY. haha! This is the first time I’ve tried belinjo prawn crackers. The belinjo chips I had before didn’t contain prawns.

I tried both the original and the spicy flavours from Yummy Yummy. The original was very sweet/sugar-forward. It did go well with the bitterness of the belinjo and probably made it more addictive. However, it does get a bit jelak for me after a few pieces. Because of the sweetness and jelak-ness, I did feel more guilty eating the original ones than the spicy ones.

The spicy flavour tastes less sweet to me. I am not sure if it’s because less sugar was used (in view of the spice) or if the spiciness made the sweetness less obvious. I could eat a lot more of them in one sitting because it didn’t taste too jelak. It also very minimally spicy, which was surprisingly but not unpleasant.

What goes into a belinjo prawn cracker?

While ingredient lists were provided behind the packaging for both flavours, they were identical. It looks like the spicy ones used the same packaging as the original flavour but with a “spicy” sticker slapped on it. I would appreciate an accurate ingredient list but it does seem to be the Singapore local standard to have no ingredients list published for locally made snacks. So, I do appreciate that they provided one at all.

The listed ingredients are: belinjo nuts, prawns, vegetable oils, garlic, sugar, and salt.

The first and second ingredients are healthy ingredients. Belinjo nuts, on its own, contains polyphenols and has antioxidant properties. Sugar and salt is very far down the list. Overall, this seems pretty good compared to some of the other chips available on the market.

When it comes to their choice of oil, however, vegetable oil is a slight bummer. In my opinion, if you were to push pretty hard marketing wise on being healthier (aka no preservatives, no artificial colouring, no artificial flavouring, no pork or lard), why not choose healthier oils?

Why vegetable oil is not the best

Vegetable oil is usually made from palm oil or has palm oil as the main oil component. Palm one was, and maybe is, the cheapest edible oil in the world. It is considered unhealthy because it is high in saturated fat, which is associated with increasing LDL (bad) cholesterol, and consequently an increased risk of heart diseases.

Singapore Health Foundation recommends a trio of healthier oils: sunflower oil, canola oil, and olive oil.

While it may not be reasonable to expect food manufacturer to use oil or canola oils due to its higher cost, blended oil with less saturated fat could be the solution. The government is pushing for blended cooking oil with less than 35% saturated fat and has gone as far as to offer subsidies. This healthier oil blend is possible by mixing palm oil with canola oil.

If Yummy Yummy switch to a blended oil with lower saturated fat, the belinjo prawn cracker would be a healthier snack. Overall, this was my second favourite snack for this CNY!

Bee Cheng Hiang Bak Kwa

I am not a bak kwa fan because I think they are carcinogenic. And paying a premium for foods that are essentially poorer for your health does not sit well with my values.

Last year, a consumer watchdog in Hong Kong found Bee Cheng Hiang’s sliced beef bak kwa containing high levels of potential carcinogens. Carcinogens are substances that may increase your risk for cancer.

The carcinogen compound in concern was polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs are formed when fat and juices from meat drip onto a hot surface causing flames and/or smoke. I think, really, it’s wok hei in a nutshell.

And yes, it is linked to cancer.

Food consumption is intrinsic to cultural practice

Come year of snake 2025, I was gifted bak kwa from Bee Cheng Hiang (no less!) by my good friend Sheng Yao. Sheng Yao is an insurance agent so I think it’s very much ingrained in the culture to buy bak kwa for clients and friends. When I shared the Straits Times article with him, he mentioned that he will not be gifting bak kwa anymore next year.

Yay! More to 身体健康 (good health).

Often, in my opinion, gifting during CNY has aspects of 面子 (mian zi aka face) and culture involved. For example, you cannot just send someone a basket of broccoli. While it is healthy, it is inexpensive and there is no CNY elements. So, it is not considered an appropriate gift for Chinese New year.

Sure, you can send someone a box of mandarin oranges, which is far healthier than bak kwa. However, a reasonable size box of mandarin oranges will cost around $10. This may be considered too cheap for a new year gift. And it also doesn’t make sense to send a carton just to make up for monetary value of the gift.

For comparison, 500g (common size for gifting) of sliced pork bak kwa from BCH will cost $37.50.

Healthy options for CNY gifting

Abalone could potentially be a healthy CNY gift. It is a source of  lean protein and is low in fat. The downside is that it’s can be fairly expensive. It’s not really reasonable to expect someone to gift a can of abalone as is. Again, because of 面子 (face).

The cheapest abalone gift set that I could find from Eu Yang Sang would cost you $95, that is two and a half times more than the conventional bak kwa gift.

If we are comfortable going with less prestigious brands (again, 面子 at play), He Jia Wang 合家旺 has abalone gift box at a much cheaper price of $25.

Understanding discretionary foods

The Australian government has done a great job with their food guidelines through the introduction of discretionary foods. By their definition, discretionary foods refer to any foods that are not essential for health.

Examples of popular discretionary foods include: desserts, pastries, processed meats (e.g., sausages, beef jerky), pizza, energy drinks, sauces, palm oil, butter, etc.

The Australian government, in my opinion, is generous is allocating up to 2.5 to 3 servings of discretionary food servings per day, though they are explicit in offering none aka 0 serving as an option.

How does discretionary foods look like in Singapore

A standard Ya Kun Set A (kaya toast with butter, eggs, and beverage of choice) would be considered between 2-4 servings of discretionary foods. Both butter and kaya would fall under discretionary food choices.

Based on serving size, kaya would be considered one serving and butter would be considered another serving. That’s two. If your choice of beverage include evaporated milk, condense milk, and/or sugar, that’s another 1-2 servings.

A small bubble tea on its own contains, thanks to the cream, sugar, and boba, has approximately 335 calories. That is over two discretionary food servings!

Discretionary foods are labelled so as they are foods to be consumed at your discretion. In Singapore, unhealthy foods can be discreet and does unknowingly add up.

Planning for CNY 2026

Hopefully through this post you have learn a little about CNY snack options in Singapore and how does healthier snack options look like. While CNY 2025 is done and over, we can keep in mind  for 2026 that there are some snacks healthier than others.

The risk of eating unhealthy food transcends beyond weight gain and being heaty to increased risk for heart diseases and even cancer.

We should also keep in mind that our food choices is not always about physical enjoyment alone. Some foods we consume are based on access (e.g., being gifted to us) where we eat them because it’s already there. Some foods we consume are based on culture and traditions (e.g., pineapple tarts, bak kwa).

While it is true that many of these foods are yummy to us. Perhaps they are yummy because of the pleasant events or social experiences we ascribed to these foods than physical taste alone.