Household Ingredients Compared › Hoisin and Black Bean Sauce (Singapore)

Hoisin and black bean sauce: what's actually in it?

Hoisin sauce is sugar first — in the Lee Kum Kee recipe sugar is the first ingredient and added sugars run to about 45g per 100g. Black bean sauce is fermented black beans first, and the two sauces are not interchangeable: hoisin is sweet and used for dipping and glazing, black bean sauce is savoury and used for stir-frying. The Singapore shelf is Lee Kum Kee first, with Amoy, Singlong and FairPrice house brand alongside. Watch for the colour: the US Lee Kum Kee hoisin contains Red 40 (E129); the international recipe does not.

This page does not give a health score or a "best" pick. It shows the ingredient list as printed and flags added sugar, salt and allergens.

The headline, in 30 seconds

Hoisin is sugar first. Lee Kum Kee Hoisin is sugar, water, fermented soybean paste — and 46g sugars per 100g, with 45g of that added sugar.
The US and international hoisin are different recipes. The US 8.5oz bottle contains Red 40 and potassium sorbate; the 397g international bottle uses colours (150a, 129), rice vinegar and no potassium sorbate. Same brand, different lists.
Black bean sauce is beans first. Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Sauce is soy sauce plus fermented black beans 18% — savoury, not sweet, with fish extract (anchovy) in the UK list.
The FairPrice spicy black bean is the chilli one. Salted chilli pepper is its first ingredient, ahead of soya bean oil and fermented black beans — the only panelled black bean sauce that leads with chilli.
Amoy's list is garbled in transcription. The Open Food Facts Amoy hoisin entry is OCR-damaged ('refliì fraines', 'door/lmpofté') and is panelled with that flag, not cleaned up silently.

At a glance

Product	Pack size (as printed)	Country of manufacture (as printed)	First ingredient	Sweetener	Sugars per 100g	Colour
Lee Kum Kee Hoisin (US 8.5oz)	8.5oz	not stated	Sugar	Sugar	46 g	Caramel + Red 40
Lee Kum Kee Hoisin (397g international)	397g	China (origin of ingredients, OFF)	Sugar	Sugar	Not stated	Colours (150a, 129)
Amoy Hoisin	not stated	Hong Kong (OFF entry)	Sugar	Sugar	Not stated	Caramel (E150a)
Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Sauce	not stated	not stated	Soy sauce	Sugar	Not stated	Not stated
Lee Kum Kee Spicy Black Bean Sauce (FairPrice)	226g	Hong Kong (FairPrice SG listing)	Salted chilli pepper	White sugar	Not stated	Not stated
Singlong Black Bean Sauce	—	—	Not verified	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated

Panelled with verbatim lists: 5 products. Seen but not verified: 8 products. Checked 12 November 2026. No prices are shown here: they change weekly and would go stale.

Panelled products

Lee Kum Kee Hoisin Sauce, 8.5oz (US recipe)

Pack size: 8.5oz · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Open Food Facts (US listing — secondary) + EWG (same list)): Sugar, water, fermented soybean paste (water, salt, soybeans, wheat flour), salt, sweet potato powder, caramel color, modified corn starch, sesame paste, dehydrated garlic, spices, salted chili peppers (chili peppers, salt), acetic acid, red 40

Allergens: gluten, sesame, soybeans. Per-100g nutrition from OFF: 225 kcal, fat 2.3g, saturated fat not stated, carbs 51.2g, sugars 46g (added sugars 45g), protein 1.9g, sodium 2560mg (salt 6.4g). Flag: US-market recipe with Red 40 (E129) and no potassium sorbate in this listing; the international 397g recipe differs — see below. SG pack not verified. Allergen: gluten, sesame, soy Via: OFF US SG pack unverified

Lee Kum Kee Hoisin Sauce, 397g (international recipe)

Pack size: 397g · Made in: China (origin of ingredients, OFF) (as printed)

Ingredients (Open Food Facts (international listing — secondary)): Sugar, Water, Fermented Soybean Paste (Water, Salt, Soybeans, Corn Starch), Salt, Colours (150a, 129), Modified Corn Starch (1422), Rice Vinegar, Sweet Potato Powder, Sesame Paste, Dehydrated Garlic, Spices, Salted Chili Peppers (Chili Peppers, Salt)

Origin of ingredients: China (OFF). Labels: vegetarian, vegan, no flavour enhancer. Differences from the US recipe: corn starch instead of wheat flour in the soybean paste, rice vinegar added, colours given as (150a, 129) instead of 'caramel color' plus 'red 40', and no potassium sorbate. Panelled separately; the two lists must not be merged. No per-100g nutrition verified for this variant. Origin: China (ingredients) Allergen: gluten, sesame, soy Via: OFF SG pack unverified

Amoy Hoisin Sauce

Pack size: not stated · Made in: Hong Kong (OFF entry) (as printed)

Ingredients (Open Food Facts (OCR transcription — secondary; read with caution)): Sugar, soya bean salty fermented (36.5%) (soya bean, wheat flour, salt, water), rice vinegar, water, colour: caramel (E150a), salt, sesame oil, chili pepper

Flag: the OFF entry for this product is OCR-damaged — the raw text contains garbled fragments ('refliì fraines', 'door/lmpofté foods') and the fermented soybean share is given as 36.5%. The list above is the best readable reconstruction and is panelled with this warning; the SG pack must be checked before this list is treated as settled. Amoy is owned by Ajinomoto and manufactured in Hong Kong per the same entry. Allergens: gluten, sesame, soybeans. Allergen: gluten, sesame, soy OCR garbled Via: OFF SG pack unverified

Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Sauce

Pack size: not stated · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Thompsons Food Service (UK foodservice, manufacturer data — secondary)): Soy Sauce (water, salt, SOYBEANS, WHEAT flour), Fermented Black Beans 18% (black SOYBEANS 83%, salt, water), Sugar, Water, Salt, Dehydrated Garlic, Salted Chilli Peppers (Chilli Peppers, Salt), Ginger, SOYBEAN Oil, Fish Extract (ANCHOVY (FISH), Salt), Rice Wine (water, rice, WHEAT), Modified Corn Starch

Fermented black beans at 18% (themselves 83% black soybeans). Contains fish extract (anchovy) — so this black bean sauce is not vegetarian, unlike the hoisin. Also contains rice wine. Flag: UK foodservice source; SG pack not verified. Allergen: soy, wheat, fish Via: UK foodservice SG pack unverified

Lee Kum Kee Spicy Black Bean Sauce, 226g

Pack size: 226g · Made in: Hong Kong (FairPrice SG listing) (as printed)

Ingredients (FairPrice ingredient section (SG listing)): Salted Chilli Pepper, Soya Bean Oil, Fermented Black Beans (Black Beans, Salt, Water), Water, White Sugar, Sesame Oil, Fermented Soya Bean Paste (Water, Salt, Soya Bean, Wheat), Ginger, Garlic, Shallot, Salt, Chili Pepper Powder, Flavour Enhancers (Monosodium Glutamate, Disodium 5-Inosinate, Disodium 5-Guanylate)

The only panelled product on this page with a FairPrice SG ingredient section — the strongest source on the page. Salted chilli pepper first, then oil, then fermented black beans; flavour enhancers MSG, E631 and E627 all present. Contains soya bean and wheat. No per-100g nutrition verified for this product. Allergen: soy, wheat Via: FairPrice SG list

Seen but not verified — do not panel until checked

Singlong Black Bean Sauce, 230g — listed at FairPrice/SG retail; no ingredient list retrieved.
Singlong Sambal Belacan / other Singlong sauces — see sambal page; not panelled here.
Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Garlic Sauce — brand variant; no SG-verified list retrieved.
Lee Kum Kee Sweet Hoisin Sauce, 567g — OFF list retrieved (sugar, water, soybeans, salt, sweet potato, modified corn starch, sesame seeds, garlic, colour ammonia caramel, wheat flour, chilli pepper, spices, acid acetic acid, preservative potassium sorbate); a separate sweet-hoisin variant, SG availability unconfirmed; not panelled.
Amoy Black Bean Sauce — listed in SG retail coverage; no list retrieved.
FairPrice house-brand hoisin / black bean sauce — listed in SG retail coverage; no lists retrieved.
Pearl River Bridge Hoisin Sauce — sold in Singapore; no SG list retrieved.
Knorr / other black bean sauces — no SG-verified lists retrieved.

Nutrition — what the numbers say

All figures in the first table are as sold, per 100 g / 100 ml. Salt and sodium: salt = sodium × 2.5. The table shows sodium as printed (in mg) with the salt equivalent in brackets. Sodium is not presented as salt, and salt is not presented as sodium.

Total vs added sugars: most Singapore packs list total sugars, not added sugars. A total-sugars figure is never labelled here as “added sugar”. Where a source states an added-sugars figure separately, it is noted. The ingredient list remains the evidence for added sugar (sugar, glucose-fructose syrup, molasses, honey) versus naturally occurring sugars (fructose in fruit, lactose in milk).

Open Food Facts is a community database and is flagged as secondary where used: the pack and the retailer nutrition section take precedence if they disagree. Figures marked “not stated” were not in the source retrieved; they are not estimated, borrowed from another variant, or copied across flavours. No Nutri-Grade is quoted or assigned on this page: Nutri-Grade applies to drinks, and none of these products carries a printed Nutri-Grade on its Singapore pack as verified in this pass.

Product ↕	Energy ↕	Protein ↕	Total fat ↕	Saturated fat ↕	Carbohydrate ↕	Sugars ↕	Sodium (salt equiv.) ↕
Lee Kum Kee Hoisin (US 8.5oz)	225 kcal	1.9 g	2.3 g	not stated	51.2 g	46 g	2560 mg (salt 6.4 g)

Click a column header to sort low to high; click again for high to low. “not stated” always sorts last — it is missing data, not zero.

Conflicts flagged, not silently resolved: Lee Kum Kee Hoisin — the US 8.5oz list (wheat flour in the soybean paste, 'red 40', no rice vinegar, no potassium sorbate) conflicts with the international 397g list (corn starch in the soybean paste, colours (150a, 129), rice vinegar added). Both are panelled separately. The S&B/Weee Japanese-market LKK hoisin list differs again (soy sauce instead of fermented soybean paste, salt equivalent 6.6g per 100g) and is recorded in the research notes, not panelled. Amoy — the OFF entry is OCR-garbled; the panelled list is a reconstruction, flagged as such.

Seen but not verified (nutrition):

Lee Kum Kee Hoisin 397g international, Amoy Hoisin, Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Sauce, Lee Kum Kee Spicy Black Bean Sauce — no per-100g nutrition panels verified.
Lee Kum Kee Sweet Hoisin 567g, Singlong, Amoy black bean, Pearl River Bridge — not panelled, so no nutrition tabled.

How to read a hoisin and black bean sauce label — the jargon, in plain English

Hoisin sauce: A sweet, thick Chinese sauce made from fermented soybean paste, sugar and sweet potato. Used as a dip (peking duck), a glaze and a stir-fry sauce. Sugar is normally the first ingredient.
Fermented soybean paste: Soybeans fermented with salt (and wheat flour or corn starch, depending on the recipe). The savoury base of hoisin and of black bean sauce's cousin products.
Fermented black beans (douchi): Black soybeans fermented with salt. The defining ingredient of black bean sauce — salty, savoury, umami. Not the same as the fermented soybean paste in hoisin.
Red 40 / Allura Red AC (E129): A red azo dye. Present in the US Lee Kum Kee hoisin; the international recipe lists colours (150a, 129) instead, and the S&B Japanese-market list omits it. Check the bottle.
Sweet potato powder: A thickener and body-giver in hoisin, used in both LKK recipes. It is not a sweetener — the sweetness comes from sugar.
E631 / E627 (disodium inosinate / disodium guanylate): Flavour enhancers used with MSG in the FairPrice spicy black bean sauce. They boost savoury taste.

What this page is not

Not a health score, and not a "best" pick. This page does not rank products.
Not a taste test, and not a price comparison. Prices change weekly; ingredients change less often, but still change.
Not complete. The products in seen-but-not-verified are not yet panelled, for the verification reasons given, not hidden.

Sources and method

Checked 12 November 2026 from: FairPrice ingredient section (Lee Kum Kee Spicy Black Bean Sauce 226g, SG listing); Open Food Facts (Lee Kum Kee Hoisin 8.5oz US — ingredients and per-100g nutrition; Lee Kum Kee Hoisin 397g international; Amoy Hoisin — OCR-garbled entry; Lee Kum Kee Sweet Hoisin 567g); EWG (LKK Hoisin US list corroboration); Thompsons Food Service UK (Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Sauce — ingredients); S&B/Weee (Japanese-market LKK Hoisin list and per-100g salt equivalent, recorded in notes only). No SG pack was available for any panelled product except via the FairPrice ingredient section. Cold Storage publishes no ingredient list on any product page.