Restaurant meals contain too much salt

Research out today has shown that many high street restaurants are putting too much salt in their meals.

Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) found that some meals contained twice the daily maximum limit for an adult.

The saltiest main course surveyed was Old Orleans Chicken Fajitas, with 8.8g of salt per serving. Old Orleans also serves Wings and Ribs with 7.6g of salt per portion.

A PizzaExpress American Hot Pizza was found to contain 7.5g of salt per portion and a Wagamama Ramen contained 7.2g of salt per serving.

By comparison, a popular main meal at Beefeater of Sirloin Steak, grilled tomato, flat mushroom and chips contains only 0.4g of salt.

Desserts and side orders didn't fare well either with Strada Aglio Garlic Bread carrying 3.3g of salt per portion, over half the adult recommended daily limit.

Old Orleans Apple Pie with Ice Cream contains almost 1.6g of salt, equivalent to a quarter (27%) of the daily salt limit for an adult.

But some restaurants do offer lower in salt meals; at Beefeater, a Prawn Cocktail followed by Steak with Chips and Apple Crumble and Custard contains just 3g of salt and at Bella Italia a meal of Garlic Grossini followed by Penne Pollo a Crema and The Godfather chocolate dessert also adds up to 3g of salt.

"Very few people eat out in restaurants every day of the week," says Carrie Bolt, CASH Nutritionist, "but more and more of us are enjoying food outside the home on a regular basis. Our worry is that people eating some of the higher salt meals we found will have no way of knowing how much salt is in their meal or that they have exceeded their daily salt limit, as there is no information available to them in the restaurants. I think that people will be as shocked as I am at the levels of hidden salt in some of our favourite restaurant meals.

Carrie Bolt continues: "We would much rather that restaurants gave their customers the choice when it comes to salt in their meals – add less during the cooking stage and let people add more at the table if they want to. After all, no restaurant would dream of adding sugar to someone's coffee or tea without asking them – why don't they give people the same choice when it comes to salt?"

Gordon Ramsay has today urged chefs to consider how much salt they are putting in food and Raymond Blanc, Chef Patron of the Manoir Au Quat' Saisons added: "I believe that good food does not need more than the very lightest of seasoning - there is no reason for good chefs to mask the flavour of their ingredients by adding too much salt. Remember herby, sour, bitter and acid are also wonderful catalysts of flavour."

Words: Clare Riley

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