Salt Awareness Week sees processors under fire again

Salt Awareness Week 2008 was launched with another offensive from Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH) against high levels of salt in food and a campaign for reduced sodium alternatives from LoSalt.

LoSalt argues that reduced sodium alternatives to salt are an alternative diet choice if cutting salt out of the diet completely cannot be done. The brand contains 66% less sodium than regular table, sea and rock salts.

Caroline Klinge, sales and marketing manager for Klinge Foods, maker of LoSalt, said: “Following last year’s successful rebranding exercise, the first since the product’s launch, this campaign demonstrates LoSalt’s continuing role in educating the consuming public in ways to reduce their salt consumption, helping the consumer towards better salt health.”

The campaign’s launch coincides with evidence published by CASH, showing many foods eaten by children still contain large amounts of salt.

Research carried out with parenting website Netmums showed savoury foods regularly eaten by children in some cases contained more than 1g of salt per serving. The UK government’s Scientific Advisory Committee advises that four to six year-olds should eat no more than 3g of salt per day.

The core offender, according to CASH, was Batchelors Super Noodles To Go - Roast Chicken, which contained 4.05g of salt per portion. Servings of Morrison’s Southern Fried Chicken Portions, Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce and Beans & Sausages and Tesco Thick Pork Sausages all contained 2g or more of salt. CASH urged parents to check food labels carefully and called on processors to cut salt in food and provide clear salt labelling.

However, the Food & Drink Federation (FDF) claimed shoppers had saved the equivalent of 2,000t of salt in five major food categories in the past year, according to TNS Worldpanel data. The reduction was down to processors’ ongoing efforts to reformulate products, said the FDF. Foods undergoing some of the biggest reductions in salt included crisps, breakfast cereals, bread, home cooking and canned goods.

The FDF said the crisps category contained 200t less salt than it did a year ago. Breakfast cereals and bread each contained 238t less salt, salt in savoury home cooking products was down by 1,200t and canned goods contained 106t less salt.

“This data confirms that manufacturers continue to make progress in this area -and that our work is making a difference for consumers,” said Julian Hunt, FDF director of communications.