High levels of salt have been found in many restaurant, café and supermarket salads by the Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH) in a recent survey.
The survey of 650 restaurants, cafes and ready-to-eat salads from shops found that 77% contained more salt than a bag of crisps.
Graham MacGregor, CASH chairman and professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University of London said: “Many salads are deceptively high in salt, and the very large variation of salt content shows that the highest ones can easily be reduced. The food industry needs to show much greater responsibility for its customers’ health.”
CASH found PizzaExpress’ Grand Chicken Caeser Salad contained 5.3g salt; Pizza Express’ Warm Vegetable & Goats Cheese Salad had 5g; Wagamama’s Lobster Super Salad contains 4.5g salt; Nando’s Mediterranean Salad with Chicken Breast contains 4g salt; and McDonald’s Crispy Chicken & Bacon Salad contained 1.3g, which is more than its burgers.
The maximum recommended daily salt intake is 6g for adults.
Caffè Nero’s Chicken Salad with Caesar Dressing was found to contain low salt, at 0.5g.
Around 50 pub and restaurant operators have now signed up to the Department of Health’s pledge to reduce salt in the food they serve to help diners achieve a reduction of 1g per person per day compared to the amount eaten in 2007.
The response to the salt reduction pledge has been the highest to any of the Department’s public health pledges for food, drink, alcohol and exercise under the Responsibility Deal.
