Channel 4 Dispatches investigates Salt: Are You Eating Too Much?

28 June 2015

Britain’s blood pressure is going through the roof, linked to heart attacks and strokes costing the NHS £2 million a year. Part of the solution is to eat less salt but Dispatches investigates if this is this a battle we are really prepared for.

 

Labelling inaccuracies

The programme reveals surprising evidence that suggests worrying inaccuracies in the labelling of salt content. 30 different products from different stores were sent for laboratory analysis to compare the amount of salt declared on the label with the amount that’s actually in the products (Tested December 2014). At the time of testing nearly two thirds of them contained more salt than the label said.  It might be surprising but most of them were within the industry’s acceptable 20% margin of error.

The results of three products stood out and a further 10 of each were tested. At the time of testing (January 2015), the results found:

Heinz Reduced Sugar And Salt Baked Beans: On average the 11 tins we tested had 20% more salt than declared...but all were still within the tolerated margin of error. 9 of the tins had too much salt in them to carry the “reduced salt” claim. One of the tins had almost as much salt as a regular tin of beans

Dairylea “Lunchables ham ‘n’ cheese crackers”:  9 of the 11 packs of Dairylea “Lunchables ham ‘n’ cheese crackers” fell outside the tolerated margin of error. On average, they had around 30% more salt than declared.

And at the time of testing the salt content given on 10 out of 11 packets of Valley Foods chicken fillets were also deemed “not sufficiently accurate”.  One had over 60% more salt than it said on the label.

 

The Salt Reduction Pledge – targets not being met

Dispatches also finds evidence suggesting the government’s salt reduction plan has been influenced by food companies. Four years ago, the coalition government scrapped the old policy and launched a new offensive in the battle to improve the nation’s health called the Public Health Responsibility Deal. The plan was to invite food companies to voluntarily sign up to a number of “pledges” to reduce things like calories and fat in their food. The Salt Reduction pledge was one of the first

Dispatches research suggests of the 73 companies that signed up to the pledge, just 12 have met all the targets they were supposed to achieve by 2012. 

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show some of the correspondence between the Department of health and food companies at the time of the consultation.  The documents reveal industry reluctance to agree to the proposed new 2017 salt reduction targets. Some cited technical reasons as salt can be used as a preservative in some food. Others said it didn’t make commercial sense as competitors hadn’t even met the old targets. One of the reasons for opposing the targets given by half of the companies, from letters we have seen, was taste.  

Our analysis shows that 17 of the salt reduction targets ended up being weaker than those originally proposed by the Department of Health.

A new study, featured in the programme, questions whether we’d notice the TASTE difference if the salt content of bread was halved.

 

High levels of Salt - the impact on children’s health

Research in the programme from the University of Bristol’s Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (also known as the Children of the 90s study) indicates a higher salt intake can lead to higher blood pressure – even for children as young as 7. Dispatches research also provides a snapshot of how some children are increasingly being diagnosed with high blood pressure. Freedom of Information requests were sent to all NHS trusts across the country. Information provided by 10 trusts indicated the number of children they had treated for high blood pressure had tripled

 

Food Manufacturers Right to Reply 

“Mondelēz International” statement regarding the Lunchables:

“As a result of the issue raised by Dispatches, we extensively checked the salt levels in Lunchables which showed a proportion of packs were slightly above permitted tolerances. We therefore took steps to rectify this matter and can confirm all packs of Lunchables now on sale are within correct levels.”

“As a company, we are signatories to the government pledge on salt reduction and have already reduced the sodium content of many of our products.”

 Heinz Beanz Reduced Sugar and Salt statement

“Heinz Beanz Reduced Sugar and Salt offer a significant reduction in salt vs. our standard Beanz which have also benefitted from gradual cuts to salt amounting to 50% over 10 years in line with Department of Health targets. Our nutrition information meets the criteria for claims based on calculated values using supplier information and standard McCance & Widdowson data. Naturally the nutrition values of beans and tomato paste can vary from season to season and from growing region to region”.

 The producers of Valley Foods chicken told Dispatches:

“We have re-tested many batches, including some of the same batches that you had tested, and we have found that our results are different to yours and are legally compliant…  We have found no out of specification results… We have, and are continuing, to thoroughly investigate this issue as we take great care to ensure all of the products are legally compliant….That said, we have not in any way disregarded your laboratory’s results, and we have after consideration of a very much wider sample, taken the decision to amend this specific recipe to further reduce the added salt which should ensure that in future there is much less possibility of any results falling outside of the legal limits”.

Department of Health Right to Reply

Public Health Minister Jane Ellison said:

“This Government is proud of the excellent progress we have made on salt reduction”. 

“We have worked with industry to reformulate popular products, challenging them to be creative and innovative in order to help the public eat less salt and make healthier choices.

 “By working in partnership with industry and setting ambitious goals, the UK has reduced average daily salt intakes by 15%, from 9.5g in 2000 to 8.1g in 2011. We know that reducing daily intakes by just 1g has the potential to prevent almost 5000 premature deaths a year, and save an annual £288 million for the health service.”

Salt: Are You Eating Too Much? Channel 4 Dispatches, Monday 29nd June at 8pm 

Notes to Editors 
Press contact: Lucy Zilberkweit, Channel 4 Press Office