Cheaper foods are heavy on salt

By MARTIN JOHNSTON, health reporter

Many foods favoured by the poor have been found to contain high levels of salt, a flavour booster linked to high blood pressure.

Poor people are also more prone than others to high blood pressure. This is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease - mainly heart disease and stroke - New Zealand's leading cause of death.

Researchers from the National Heart Foundation and Otago University have shown that many cheaper food brands, including of white and wholemeal breads, contain on average 15 per cent more sodium than dearer brands. Sodium is the component of salt linked to increased blood pressure.

But a baking industry expert said salt was added to bread to improve its texture and boost the flavour. "Bread's just horrible without salt."

The addition of tasty grains and seeds compensated for the flavour reduction in low-salt breads, but they lifted the price, he said.

A survey of 15 food categories at four Dunedin supermarkets checked the often cheaper "private label" products such as Pam's, Budget, Signature and Basics against manufacturers' own "branded" lines.

Private label breakfast cereals of the corn-flake or rice-bubble type contained on average 539mg of sodium per 100g of the product. This was 51 per cent more than the branded items.

But the spread of sodium content was huge, ranging from 6mg to 920mg per 100g.

Irrespective of brand types, the cheapest quarter of margarines had 74 per cent more sodium than the dearest quarter.

But mueslis and wheat biscuits went against the trend, the cheaper ones containing less sodium.

David Munro, the foundation's food industry manager and an author of the research, published in the Dietetic Association's journal, said yesterday that people should check the nutrition panel on food packets and minimise sodium intake.

Hubbard Foods owner Dick Hubbard, a qualified food technologist, questioned findings on flaked and puffed breakfast cereals such as rice bubbles. He said some lower-salt private label products might not have made it into the survey.

"We do not cheapen formulations by putting more salt in for private label products," said Mr Hubbard, whose company makes a wide range of breakfast cereals, including Signature and Basics rice bubbles sold by Woolworths and other Progressive Enterprises supermarkets.

No salt was added to some cereals, he said, but it was added to rice bubble-type products - only to boost the puffing process, not the flavour.

Mr Munro said New Zealanders consumed about 9g of sodium a day, far more than the recommended 2.3g to 5.9g.

The amount might be increasing, since consumption of processed foods might be rising.

The World Health Organisation estimates that reducing to 2.9g a day would cut deaths from strokes by 22 per cent and from heart disease by 16 per cent.

Mr Munro said Progressive and Foodstuffs worked with the foundation in trying to reduce sodium and already had some private label items endorsed by the "Pick the Tick" healthy food scheme.

Salt

* Boosts flavour of foods.

* Improves texture of bread and helps make rice bubbles.

* Sodium is salt's unhealthy component.

* The Heart Foundation urges eating less of it.

* It is linked to high blood pressure, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke).

* Poor people are more prone than others to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.