Survey reveals shocking levels of salt in your curry night
29th April 2010
- Secret salt is hidden in popular accompaniments to a curry including side dishes, naan bread, poppadums, chutneys/pickles and rice
- Whilst ready meals can be very high in salt; you can more than DOUBLE your salt intake with extras such as chutney and Naan bread
Click here for some low salt curry recipes>>
Click here to view the British Heart Foundation Asian recipe book (opens new window)>>
We all love a curry night, whether its with our friends or family, and curries are frequently shown to be the UK’s favourite dish. However, this survey of Indian and South Asian products available in UK supermarkets shows that extremely high levels of salt can be found, not just in the ready meals and sauces, but in the chutneys, side dishes, naan breads and poppadums which we eat as well.
Many of the surveyed ready meals contain extremely high levels of salt. However, the survey also found that a naan bread could contain over HALF your daily salt maximum, and the poppadums you choose could contain more salt than two packets of crisps. Many of the pickles and chutneys sampled were, weight for weight, saltier than Atlantic seawater. By swapping salt laden pickles (or limiting the amount that you have) for less salty accompaniments such as Raita or Mango Chutney you could significantly reduce your salt intake.
Our advice to you is to check the labels before you purchase products, as items which appear to be similar can actually be very different in salt content. Cooking your own currys at home can reduce the salt content of your meal, as well as being fun – you can always buy low salt naan and pappadams to go at the side!
Simple swaps to reduce your salt intake
Higher Example |
Salt/ portion |
Lower Example |
Salt/ portion |
grams of salt saved |
Kan Pur Garden Chicken Korma with Pilau rice |
4.50g |
Sainsbury’s Be Good To Yourself Chicken Korma with Pilau Rice |
0.91g |
3.59g |
Waitrose Half Fat Jalfrezi Cooking Sauce |
2.49g |
The Cooperative Healthy Living Rogan Josh Cook in Sauce |
0.5g |
1.99g |
Marks & Spencer Garlic & Coriander Naan |
3.2g (per naan) |
Weight Watchers 4 Mini Garlic & Coriander Naan Breads |
0.2g (per mini naan) |
3.0g |
Tesco Basmati Rice (fresh) |
1.4g/270g portion |
Uncle Bens Microwaveable Basmati Rice |
0.25g/125g portion |
1.15g |
Pataks Plain Mini Poppudum |
1.1g/25g portion |
ASDA 8 Plain Poppudum |
0.2g per pappadam |
0.9g |
Priya Lime Pickle |
5.8g |
Tesco Spicy Lime Pickle |
1.1g |
4.7g |
Priya Mango Pickle |
4.75g |
The Cooperative Mango Chutney |
0.2g |
4.75g |
Click here for a spreadsheet with all the survey data (Word) (Excel)
Click here for best and worst examples
Click here for examples from your local supermarket
Click here for full press release