Salt in ready meals survey findings

Tuesday 10 June 2003

The survey of salt in ready meals, carried out by NOP Field Marketing for the Food Standards Agency, included six types of ready meals on sale in most major supermarkets.

They were:

• shepherd's pie
• macaroni cheese
• lasagne
• chicken korma and rice
• spaghetti and meatballs
• chicken nuggets and chips

In May 2003, where possible, the standard version of the meal, the 'healthy choice' option, and the version aimed at children were bought from seven different supermarkets. The salt content listed on the labels of all 69 samples was recorded.

Of those manufacturers who had products in all categories, Tesco's products contained the least salt overall. Asda had the most products that contained more than 40% of the recommended daily salt intake.

Children’s ready meals

The survey found that products aimed specifically at children were often high in salt. Children aged 7 to 10 should be having no more than 5 grams of salt per day.

But a number of meals, including three of the Asda 'More for Kids' products such as macaroni cheese and shepherd's pie, contained more than 40% of this daily target.

‘Healthy choice’ ready meals

On average, although ‘healthy choice’ ready meals often contained a little less salt than the standard versions, the differences were small.

One meal – Asda 'Good For You' lasagne – contained 60% of the adult target daily intake of 6 grams per day.

Two of the lowest salt products were Safeway’s chicken korma and rice, and their lasagne from their 'Eat Smart' range. Heinz Weight Watchers and Birds Eye Less Than 3% Fat chicken korma were also relatively low in salt.

Standard ready meals

83% of all the standard products contained more than 40% of a day's maximum recommended salt intake.

Sainsbury's shepherd's pie had 5.9 grams of salt per portion – 98.3% of the target daily salt intake for adults.