Just how big is a portion? shoppers misled over salt contents in foods

A study of products on supermarket shelves in Britain has revealed that consumers are being misled as to the salt content in some of the foods they buy.

The survey conducted for the the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS) tested food on sale in supermarkets in 60 council areas across Britain and found that manufacturers could be reducing serving sizes deliberately to keep the salt content as low as possible.

In total 831 products were tested and LACORS says they are concerned that some customers are being hoodwinked and misled by manufacturers who deliberately quote unreasonably small portion sizes on their packaging to mask the true salt content of their products.

LACORS gives the example on a pack of chicken nuggets which suggests a serving size of 15g (0.53oz) which equates to one nugget.

Similar discrepancies were also found on sliced bread, baked beans and tomato sauce.

LACORS is now calling for the standardisation of portion sizes for different product types to prevent confusing shoppers and is also demanding that sodium content per 100g should be shown on all packs of processed foods.

Although tests showed that the overall salt content of foods had dropped by 11 per cent since May 2005, when the last research was conducted, less than half of all products tested still failed to meet salt reduction targets from the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which should be achieved by 2010.

The FSA is also concerned about misleading portion sizes on food labels but denies consumers are being deliberately misled and says salt levels are clearly declared on the back of pack, and many manufacturers are also putting the information on the front of pack, as part of the Guidance Daily Amount labelling schemes.

Health campaigners Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) is also concerned about the varying portion sizes that mask salt content.

CASH estimates that if average adult salt consumption were reduced to 6gs a day it would prevent 70,000 heart attacks and strokes a year.

It is recommended that adults should eat no more than 6g of salt a day but the average intake of salt is between 9g and 10g a day.

But not all experts agree and some suggest salt does not play a significant role in those conditions.