Ready-to-cook food high in salt

As per the survey carried out in the UK by a group that campaigns against high levels of salt in food, some curries, on sale in supermarkets, are saltier than the Atlantic Ocean. the “Telegraph” reported.

“The level of salt in some of these curries is frankly outrageous, but it’s often tucked away behind unhelpful food labels where it’s difficult to spot,” said Mubeen Bhutta, policy manager at the British Heart Foundation. The team found that the worst offender was Iceland’s Chicken Tikka Balti frozen ready meal with 4.1 grams of salt per 100g.

Curries, naans and pickles available at other stores including Tesco, Marks & Spencer also contained a high enough salt content to merit a red sticker under the Food Standards Agency traffic light labelling scheme, the survey said. A red sticker label means the product contains a high level of salt and that consumers should eat them only infrequently as a treat. Over half — 29 of 52 — of the pickles and chutneys sampled were saltier than Atlantic seawater, it claimed.

Whole truth

Suggesting that food manufacturers should give shoppers the whole truth about what they are putting in their baskets, Bhutta said, “We believe that universal front-of pack label, including traffic light colours, the words ‘high’, ‘medium’ and ‘low’ and guideline daily amounts, are key to helping people easily understand what’s in the food and drink they take to the tills.”

Their calculation also disclosed that if a person ate the saltiest curry, naan, rice, vegetable side dish, poppudum and pickle available, than he would be taking in 32 gms of salt – five times the recommended daily limit.