How to make the most of supermarkets' half-hearted salt targets

Supermarkets have finally responded to pressure to cut the salt content in their own-brand foodstuffs.

After a report in the journal Hypertension in December revealed that 143 deaths could be avoided every single day by cutting the excessive salt from our diets, public health minister Melanie Johnson called for action from those responsible for the vast majority of the UK's food.

Too much salt causes heart disease and strokes. Around 80% of our salt intake comes from processed foods.

Foods such as pizzas, ready meals, sandwiches, soups, cook-in-sauces, bread and baked beans are included in the new guidelines from the industry's trade association, the British Retail Consortium. Another targeted food - breakfast cereals - will surprise the many consumers who were not aware they contained salt at all.

The targets include:

• Chilled and frozen pizza - 3g of salt per serving
• Ready meals - 5g per serving
• Sandwiches - 4g per serving
• Soups - 2.5g per serving
• Baked beans in tomato sauce - 2.3g per serving
• Pre-packed white, brown and wholemeal bread - 1.1g per serving of two slices.

How much salt is safe?

The average daily salt consumption in the UK is 12g; the government recommends 6g but even this is on the high side. Getting it down to 3g could save over 50,000 lives a year according to researchers from St George's Hospital Medical School in London.

Researcher Feng He, said: 'Our research demonstrated that there is a dose response to salt reduction - the larger the reduction in salt intake, the larger the reduction in blood pressure. From the well-researched link between blood pressure and deaths from stroke and heart disease, we were able to calculate how many lives would be saved by reducing salt intake.' 

How soon will supermarket salt levels be reduced?

The problem is that this is self-regulation rather than government intervention. As a result the industry has given themselves plenty of time. They have three years and in that time need achieve the guideline reduction in only five of the nine food categories targeted. The BRC estimates that its guidelines will result in overall cuts in salt consumption of 10 to 25%.

Is that enough?

Campaign group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash), say that reducing salt in processed food would allow most people to reduce their salt intake without even noticing. They called for bigger improvements. Professor Graham MacGregor of Cash, who also co-wrote the report, said the government's 6g target was based only on what the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition deemed to be feasible not what was best for health. He told the BBC: 'We believe that the targets should be set according to the maximum potential health benefits, not according to the convenience of the food industry.'

How do I work out my salt intake?

Cutting our salt intake is made more complicated because food labels are misleading — perhaps deliberately. They list sodium rather than salt content.

Every gram of salt contains roughly 0.42 grams of sodium. So, to get a decent estimate of the amount of salt in the product, double the listed sodium content. To keep within the daily limit of 6g of salt, you should be eating 2.5g or less of sodium a day.

So check out the sodium on the products you buy. The other way to reduce salt consumption is to not add it to cooking or at the table.