‘Halal snack pack’ (HSP) has been announced as Australia’s People’s Choice Word of the Year for 2016, edging out political terms ‘alt-right’ and ‘fake news’ to win, according to the Macquarie Dictionary today, reports China’s Xinhua news agency.

The snack pack, which is a ‘a fast food comprising layers of hot chips, grated cheese, halal doner kebab meat, garlic sauce, barbecue sauce and chilli sauce’, shot to fame in 2016 after a social media group called the ‘Halal Snack Pack Appreciation Society’ rapidly gained media attention for attracting more than 150,000 members.

Following extensive media coverage and also made famous by Iranian-born Labour Senator Sam Dastyari, who invited anti-halal politician Pauline Hanson to “share a snack pack” with him, the HSP quickly became Australia’s fast food of choice in 2016.

“The significance of halal snack pack is that it tells us about something once confined largely to the Muslim community that is now surfacing throughout the broader Australian community,” the Macquarie Dictionary committee said after announcing winner today.

The dictionary’s editor, Susan Butler said she was moved to eat her first snack pack to celebrate the HSP’s win.

“How can you write the definition of HSP with enthusiasm if you have never sampled it? So today I ate my first HSP,” Butler told The Canberra Times today.

“I can understand why this dish has become the fast food item of the day. It is carbohydrate-loaded, calorific sinfulness. Once started on it, you cannot stop.”

According to Fairfax Media, some kebab shops were selling in excess of 400 snack packs every day at the height of the HSP’s popularity, with lines forming at the “best reviewed” kebab shops, according to members of the appreciation society.

- Bernama