High levels of salt hidden in UK's favourite sandwiches
5 July 2007
• One sandwich can contain more salt than seven packets of crisps
• 41% surveyed contain more salt than a Big Mac
We surveyed popular varieties of sandwiches for their salt content. These included chicken salad, chicken & bacon, egg & cress, bacon, lettuce & tomato, cheeses & onion, ploughman's, prawn mayonnaise, tuna & sweet corn, cheese & ham and All day breakfast.
Unsurprisingly, sandwiches containing salty sandwich fillings such as ham, bacon and sausage had some of the highest levels of salt. However, we were surprised that over 40% of the sandwiches surveyed contained 2.0g salt or more, equivalent to a third of your maximum recommended salt intake for a da. Even more shocking is that some sandwiches contained the same amount of salt as you would find in seven packets of ready salted crisps!
We were also surprised that the salt content varied so much within the same variety of sandwich. For example, some brands of chicken & bacon sandwiches contained twice as much salt as other brands of chicken & bacon sandwich.
As a general guide, sandwich fillings such as egg & cress, chicken salad and tuna had lower salt levels.
Attached below is a document listing all the sandwiches which we found that have less than 2.0grams, or a third, of our maximum recommended salt intake. We have by no means surveyed all sandwiches so please check the labels of your favourite sandwiches to look for sandwiches with less than 2.0grams.
What can I do about it?
Where you find that pre-packaged sandwiches, such as Pret A Manger, have not labelled the salt content on their packaging, you could write to the company and ask them to start labelling their products.
Click here for a list of sandwiches surveyed that contained less than 2.0g salt
Click here for the full press release
Click here for a full list of sandwiches that CASH surveyed
Sandwiches are continually being reformulated so please continue to check the nutritional label on your sandwich.