A lunchtime staple has been put on notice after a health campaign group found that many sandwiches, wraps, rolls and baguettes sold in the UK carry salt levels far above what most people would expect. In a survey of 546 products across supermarkets and high street chains, one in 10 exceeded both salt and calorie health targets, while 44 per cent would trigger a red, high-salt warning on front-of-pack labels.
The worst offender was Gail’s Smoked Chicken Caesar Club, which contained 6.88g of salt, more than the UK’s recommended daily limit of 6g for adults and, the group said, more salt than almost five McDonald’s cheeseburgers. It also packed 1,067 calories, 90 per cent of an adult’s maximum daily saturated fat limit and only 20 per cent of recommended fibre intake. The findings, Action on Salt & Sugar said, laid bare the scale of hidden salt in everyday lunch choices.
The study suggests the problem is not limited to a handful of outliers. Nearly a third of the products surveyed delivered half or more of an adult’s maximum daily salt limit in a single serving, and a third would receive a red warning for saturated fat. More than one in seven sandwiches were high in fat, saturated fat and salt at the same time, while almost all, 97 per cent, failed to provide even a third of the daily recommended fibre intake. A quarter were classified as less healthy under the current 2004/5 Nutrient Profiling Model.
Items sold out of home were generally saltier than those sold in supermarkets, the analysis found, underscoring how quickly a grab-and-go lunch can become a heavy hit to a day’s intake. Among the high-salt examples were Gail’s Smoked Salmon Bagel with Schmear and Pickled Pink Onions at 4.2g, Paul’s Rosette Cheese Salami Gherkin at 4.19g, Pret A Manger’s Ham & Greve Baguette at 3.85g, Tesco’s Fully Loaded Hot Honey Halloumi, Falafel and Pickled Slaw at 3.78g, Tootoomoo’s Sriracha Pork Sando at 3.67g and Sainsbury’s Kitchen Deli Pastrami, Cheddar Cheese & Gherkin Mustard Mayo at 3.67g.
Those last three all contained more salt than 12 standard bags of ready salted crisps. Even some of the lower-salt examples still added up quickly: Pret A Manger’s Chicken Salad Sandwich contained 2.22g, Greggs’ Roast Chicken Salad Sandwich 1.1g, an M&S All Day Breakfast Sandwich 2.65g and a Sainsbury’s All Day Breakfast Sandwich 1.54g. For a customer trying to stay within 6g of salt a day, the numbers leave little room for anything else.
The gap between the healthier image of a sandwich and the reality on the label is the point of the report. A product that looks like a straightforward lunch can still push a person to the edge of, or beyond, a full day’s salt intake before the afternoon is over. Action on Salt & Sugar said the results were a failure and alarmingly high, and the data show why that judgment lands: in this market, the quick lunch is often doing far more nutritional damage than the packaging suggests.
