Salt in kids' food
Monday, 28 Jan 2008 10:08
Parents may not be aware of the amount of salt in children's food
Clearer food labels are needed to ensure parents are aware of how much salt their children are eating in savoury and sweet foods, campaigners say.
The call for different labels follows a report by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) which warned that some foods eaten by children contain more than half the daily maximum limit of salt for a six-year-old in a single serving.
A survey released to coincide with the report also warned that many parents are confused about which foods contain salt.
The Netmums.com poll revealed that just three per cent of parents taking part knew that a blueberry muffin has more salt than two standard bags of crisps and only ten per cent were aware that a serving of Rice Krispie-style breakfast cereal with milk contains more salt than a packet of ready salted crisps.
Too much salt is linked to high blood pressure, which in turn raises the risk of heart disease.
While adults are recommended to eat no more than 6g of salt a day, guidelines say children aged four to six should have under 3g a day.
Those aged between one and three should have no more than 2g.
Despite this, the study conducted by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) found that some savoury foods have more than 1g of salt per serving.
Batchelor's roast chicken flavour Super Noodles-To-Go have 4.05g of salt per portion, while Morrison's southern fried chicken portions had 2.8g of salt per portion of one thigh and one drumstick.
Cash also identified worrying levels of salt in sweet foods.
Over 2g of salt was found in Butterkist butter flavour microwave popcorn and Asda's fresh roly poly pudding contained 1.1g of salt.
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