Salt in Free From products
24th September 2009
- Supermarket 'Free From' products are lagging behind in salt reduction
- Research has shown that these 'Free From' products can contain more salt than the supermarkets standard versions
Consensus Action on Salt and Health ( CASH ) surveyed supermarket own label 'Free From' products from the five major UK retailers; Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury's Waitrose and Morrisons. 71 products in total were looked at, and compared to the supermarkets standard version of the product.
It was found that many of the Free From products, particularly the sweet products such as cakes and biscuits, contained higher levels of salt than the standard versions. In one case the Free From product contained six times the salt level per 100g compared to the standard.
Many people in the UK suffer from allergies such as coeliac disease, as well as a range of food intolerances. We don't feel that these people should have to further jeopardise their health by consuming foods that are higher in salt.
Please click on the links below to find out the salt content of your favourite Free From products.
Biscuits
Breads and Cakes
Ready Meals and Meat Products
Click here for the full press release
Click here for a spreadsheet with all the survey data (Excel) (PDF)
Click here for a spreadsheet with the best and worst comparison products (PDF)
(If you cannot open PDF files, please contact us and we can send you a word version)