Salt Awareness Week

by the Consensus Action on Salt and Health - CASH -

Research reveals hidden salt content of popular restaurant meals

A three course meal can contain over 15g of salt

Top chefs and food guides support call for less salt in restaurant food

New research published by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) shows that many popular meals eaten in UK high-street restaurants can contain large amounts of salt, in some cases more than twice the daily maximum limit for an adult in a single meal.

To mark Salt Awareness Week 2009, CASH worked with Trading Standards officers around the country to measure the salt content of 96 popular menu items from 16 high street restaurant chains Samples were purchased from the restaurants and analysed for their salt content by the Public Analyst.

We found that nearly three quarters (72%) of the main course dishes contained 3g of salt or more, the maximum daily limit for a six year-old and half the adult daily limit, and seven of these contained 6g of salt or more, the maximum daily limit for an adult. The saltiest dishes were not confined to one or two restaurants - six out of the sixteen (over one third, 38%) restaurants surveyed served a popular main course dish containing 6g of salt or more.

The saltiest main course surveyed was Old Orleans Chicken Fajitas, with 8.8g of salt per serving. Old Orleans also serves Wings and Ribs with 7.6g of salt per portion. A Pizza Express American Hot Pizza contains 7.5g of salt per portion and a Wagamama Ramen contains 7.2g of salt per serving. By comparison, a popular main meal at Beefeater of Sirloin Steak, grilled tomato, flat mushroom and chips contains only 0.4g of salt.

Starters and side dishes were also surveyed, with Old Orleans Chicken Wings with spicy BBQ sauce and blue cheese dressing containing almost 5g of salt per portion. Strada Aglio Garlic Bread contains 3.3g of salt per portion, over half the adult recommended daily limit.

Desserts can also contain hidden salt: Old Orleans Apple Pie with Ice Cream contains almost 1.6g of salt, equivalent to a quarter (27%) of the daily salt limit for an adult. Harvester's Bramley Apple Pie and Zizzi's Mela Croccante [Ref. 5] each contain 0.9g of salt, 15% of an adult's daily salt limit and almost a third of a six year-old's.

Someone eating at Old Orleans and choosing Chicken Wings followed by Chicken Fajitas and finishing with Apple Pie and Ice Cream would consume over 15g of salt, two and a half times their daily limit in one meal.

Depending on their choice of dishes, customers eating a three-course meal in other restaurants could also eat well over the recommended daily salt limit. For instance, a meal at Wagamama of Duck Gyoza followed by Wagamama Ramen with Cheesecake for dessert contains a total of 11.3g of salt. At Pizza Express, Dough Balls followed by an American Hot pizza and Cheesecake contains 9.8g.

By comparison, at some of the restaurants surveyed, customers could choose meal combinations that are lower in salt. For example, at Beefeater, a Prawn Cocktail followed by Steak with Chips and Apple Crumble and Custard contains just 3g of salt. And at Bella Italia a meal of Garlic Grossini followed by Penne Pollo a Crema and The Godfather chocolate dessert also adds up to 3g of salt. But even these make up half of an adult's and all of a 6 year old's maximum recommended intake for the whole day.

"Very few people eat out in restaurants every day of the week," says Carrie Bolt, CASH Nutritionist, "but more and more of us are enjoying food outside the home on a regular basis. Our worry is that people eating some of the higher salt meals we found will have no way of knowing how much salt is in their meal or that they have exceeded their daily salt limit, as there is no information available to them in the restaurants. I think that people will be as shocked as I am at the levels of hidden salt in some of our favourite restaurant meals.

CASH is using Salt Awareness Week 2009 to encourage people to ask for less salt to be added to their food when they eat out in restaurants. And some of the UK's top chefs are lending their voices to the campaign, hoping to persuade their colleagues to add less salt to their cooking:

Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition recommended salt intakes for children and adults

So you can see that the limits for young children are very low. If you think that a slice of bread can contain 0.5g of salt or more and a bag of crisps has 0.5g, it's easy to see how some toddlers could be exceeding their salt limit regularly. Manufactured baby foods for up to 7 months cannot contain added salt by law, as babies' kidneys cannot process salt properly and it is dangerous for them to eat salt.

Parents do need to be careful not to add any salt (or products like ketchup, stock cubes, soy sauce mayonnaise, etc etc) when they are making their own baby foods. It may taste bland to them, but babies who have never tasted salt will certainly not miss it!

Consensus Action on Salt and Health

( CASH ) is launching its 10th National Salt Awareness Week Monday 2nd - Sunday 8th February 2009. The focus for the Week is salt in food eaten out of the home. We aim to raise awareness that foods eaten outside the home, for example in restaurants, takeaway and fast foods, can contain a lot of hidden salt. We also aim to highlight to the catering industry and to chefs and others involved, the importance of adding less salt to food and the long-term health implications of eating a high salt diet. We will be providing practical advice to consumers and encouraging them to choose lower salt foods and to ask for much less salt to be added to their meals.

Visti www.actiononsalt.org.uk/ for more information on salt awareness.

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