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UK's dangerous salt levels exposed as only one in 10 processed meats are safe

Tag：burgers bacon salt 2021-10-19 10:26

Just one in ten processed meats sold in Britain such as burgers and bacon contain safe levels of salt, new research shows.

Many contain just over a quarter of an adult’s recommended daily intake of salt at 3.5 ounces, an international review by China’s Peking University found.

This would be the equivalent of an average hamburger, four rashers of bacon or three fish fingers.

Products where meat or fish is formed during processing are an opportunity for manufacturers to sneak in added salt and other preservatives.

Processed foods now account for 80% of Britons’ salt intake this way.

The UK has a traffic light food labelling system and only one in ten processed meat and fish products here fall into the green light category indicating levels are healthy.

Lead author Dr Puhong Zhang said: “The processing itself offers an opportunity to add savoury flavour to food and prolong the shelf-life of food products to improve food safety.

“However the high sodium content, which is known to be a key factor for quality and sensory attributes of processed meat and fish, raises a huge public health concern.”

The scientific review, published in BMJ Open, showed however that salt intake was even worse in processed meat and fish products in China, the US, South Africa and Australia.

Data collected between 2012 and 2018 found China had the highest salt levels for both meat and fish products followed by the US, South Africa, Australia and the UK.

It comes as a separate US study showed that sugar taxes cut consumption of fizzy drinks by a can a week on average.

Research led by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia based the findings on around 87,000 school children aged 14 to 18.

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