How much salt are you consuming without realising?

Cereal

Next Generation Food reported at the end of August how many people are unaware how much salt they're actually consuming on a daily basis.

Reports have shown, of the salt we consume, 75 percent of it is already present in the food we buy. Because of this, food manufacturers have been under increasing pressure to reduce the levels of salt in food.

At the beginning of September, leading cereal manufacturers in the UK met with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to urge the body to pull a GBP£3 million advertising campaign on salt consumption. Food manufacturers have been cutting the salt content in foods, but a report by Which? magazine reveals that many cereals still contain too much salt. According the report, a 100g box of Tesco Special Flakes, for instance, contains the same amount of salt as a 100g of Walkers Ready Salted crisps.

But the appeals to stop the ads will be in vein. The FSA ad campaign will start from today. The health watchdog will warn that more than three quarters of people (77 percent) are unaware that bread and breakfast cereals are among the daily foods that contribute most salt to our diet.

The campaign is urging people to pay closer attention to the salt levels in the foods they are buying and aims to encourage people to reduce the amount of salt they eat by checking labels on foods and choosing products that are lower in salt.

"Salt intakes are coming down, but if we are to get closer to meeting our target of reducing intakes to a maximum of 6g a day for adults, and lower levels for children, people need to become more aware of the foods which contribute the most, as it isn't just the obvious things we need to watch out for as far as salt is concerned," said Rosemary Hignett, head of nutrition at the FSA.

She went on to say, "We're not suggesting people stop eating these foods. In fact, we encourage people to eat bread and breakfast cereals, as they are an important part of a healthy diet. But we are saying take a look at the labels to find those that are lower in salt. This could be a supermarket own-label product, and maybe one from the "value" range. If so, any cost saving is an added bonus."

The survey of 2000 people in the UK, also found that 40 percent of people think that supermarket "value" ranges are higher in salt than other ranges, although this isn't necessarily the case., according to the FSA. Supermarket own-label versions of some foods, including bread, were found to often be lower in salt than the branded versions.

A spokesperson for Kellogg said to Just-Food, "We support the salt awareness message - and put it on packs of our no added salt foods - but it's wrong to say that breakfast cereals are big contributor to salt intakes. Cereals account for less than 3 percent of the salt we put in our shopping baskets every year - if you want to address public health there are more obvious foods to focus on.

The spokesperson went on to say, "We've been reducing salt in our cereals, by a total of 40 percent, for the last ten years - that's why we're disappointed to be singled out in this campaign and, given that the FSA also say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, we'd be even more disappointed if people were left wondering what they should serve for breakfast if toast and cereals were off the menu."

The ads are in the form of TV ads, and print and radio ads. As part of the campaign, the FSA has also created a free iPhone application and mobile web page so that consumers can check the salt levels in foods as they shop.

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