More than a pinch

Reducing people’s intake of salt has been one of the Agency’s main campaigns in recent years and as 75% of the salt we eat is already in the food that we buy, the Agency has also been working with the food industry to reduce the levels of salt in foods like bacon, ham, cheese, bread, breakfast cereals and ready meals –­ with some considerable reductions having already been achieved.

Unfortunately, we haven’t had a breakthrough on every product. The salt and health campaigning group CASH (Consensus Action on Salt and Health) have been looking at Delia Smith’s most recent book and TV series – 'How to Cheat at Cooking' – which encourages people to cook meals using ready prepared foods, rather than cooking from scratch.  This is, in theory, a really useful concept because it helps us to make tasty meals more quickly, something which is increasingly important in a world where we are all becoming busier and so have less time to cook.

However, CASH has calculated that some of these recipes will contribute the majority of, or more than, the whole days’ maximum recommended intake for an adult (6g) in just one portion.  The Thick Pea and Bacon Soup recipe contains 12g salt – 6g per portion if two people are feeling a bit peckish, but still 3g – half an adults’ daily intake – if it’s divided among four.  And there are two recipes for sauces to go with pasta –automatically assumed to be a healthy meal – that contain around 7g salt (Carbonara) and 3.7g salt (Puttanesca) per portion. 

The problem with having a high salt intake is that it increases your risk of having high blood pressure; having high blood pressure means you’re three times more likely to develop heart disease or suffer a stroke than those with normal blood pressure, and twice as likely to die from these health problems.  However, we can all do something about reducing our salt intake, which the Agency’s campaign on salt has been telling us over the past few years.

For example, we can check the labels of the foods that we buy and choose the products that are lower in salt.  We can think about the amount that we eat of some higher salt foods – like bacon, ham, cheese – and how frequently we have them.    And we can cut down on the amount of salt we add when cooking and eating our food.

For more information on what the food industry is doing, and what you can do to help yourself have a lower salt intake, do explore our salt website.