Almost three quarters of snacks sold as part of a high street shop meal deal contain dangerous levels of salt, sugar or saturated fat, according to new research.
The study, conducted by the campaign group Action on Salt, looked at 360 products found in the meal deal combinations of eight high street shops and revealed that some popular items had up to 80 per cent more salt than a McDonald’s Big Mac and fries.
The unhealthiest snacks on offer included sausage rolls, Cornish pasties and green olives, all of which contained salt levels equivalent to more than four packets of ready salted crisps.
The NHS advises that adults consume up to 6g of salt per day — about one teaspoon — and say that a high-salt diet can increase blood pressure and raise the risk of a heart attack or stroke, conditions that are responsible for one in four deaths in England each year.
However, the latest statistics show that the UK is consuming about 40 per cent more than recommended, with the average person having about 8.4g of salt.
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Action on Salt say meal deals — which normally consist of a main, snack and a drink and are consumed by one in three people at least twice a week – are contributing to this excess.
The campaign group, which wants the government to enforce mandatory salt reduction targets in food, found that some meal deal combinations are close to the recommended daily figure by themselves.
Shoppers in the supermarket Tesco buying the combination of a chicken club sandwich, green olives with herbs and an Oasis citrus punch will consume 4.2g of salt.
Those having lunch in the sandwich shop Subway who order a mega meat sub with cheese and Doritos tangy cheese crisps can ingest up to 5.3g of salt, just 0.7g shy of the recommended daily allowance. By contrast a McDonald’s Big Mac and fries contains 2.92g of salt.
The research, by academics at the Queen Mary University of London, found some popular, sometimes seemingly healthy snacks contain surprisingly high levels of salt. For example, the Co-op’s lemon and coriander green olives contain 2.02g of salt per packet, five times more than a packet of salted peanuts.
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Of the stores offering meal deals, Subway and Asda were deemed to provide the highest proportion of unhealthy snacks, with more than 80 per cent of their choices ranking badly. Although there was no leader in healthy snack options, Sainsbury’s ranked the most favourably.
The government has laid out a number of targets for reducing the salt content of certain products such as cured meats or breakfast cereals, and has asked retailers and takeaway outlets to do more with the new products they introduce.
Sonia Pombo, the campaign manager for Action on Salt, said: “Despite the overwhelming impact on health, many companies appear to have forgotten that salt is a killer. These findings are well and truly shocking, especially given the vast amount of people that purchase these meal deals on a regular basis.
“In order to shift our food choices to healthier products, we need food companies to provide us with better, healthier and more affordable options.”
