Fast food slow to lick salty problem

Kate Hagan
April 7, 2014
The Age
Fast food is becoming less salty, although many items such as pizzas and burgers still contain high levels of salt, prompting calls for sector-wide targets to achieve further reductions.
Researchers from the University of Sydney’s George Institute for Global Health studied salt levels between 2009 and 2012 in menu items offered by six large fast food chains: Pizza Hut, Hungry Jack’s, KFC, McDonald’s, Subway and Domino’s Pizza. They found that while the average sodium content of menu items decreased at a rate of about 2 per cent to 3 per cent a year, many products nonetheless contained an adult’s entire recommended daily salt intake in a single serve.
Study senior author Elizabeth Dunford said the small reduction in salt levels in fast foods was encouraging but “could easily be undone by the trend towards larger portion sizes”. She
said the average Australian consumed nine grams of salt each day, which was more than double the recommended daily limit of four grams of salt (or 1600 milligrams of sodium).
Dr Dunford said salt was the “hidden killer” in the Australian diet, with high levels linked to high blood pressure and an increased risk of heart disease, including heart attacks and strokes.
“People can automatically see that they get fatter if they eat too much fat or too many calories,” she said. “But salt is not really thought of and it’s hidden in so many places like breads, cereals, processed meats and sauces.”
Dr Dunford said reducing salt in processed and fast foods was one of the most cost-effective options for improving public health.
Authors of the paper, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, said that in many cases the sodium content of similar products varied widely, “suggesting that there is no technical reason preventing further sodium reduction” in many items.
They said the federal government’s food and health dialogue – in which food manufacturers commit to voluntary targets – needed to be backed by the threat of regulation.
“The commercial imperative of the food industry to deliver shareholder value appears likely to override health concerns until regulatory checks are put in place,” the authors said. “While individual companies may deliver moderate improvements to their products, there is little evidence that significant sector-wide improvements can be achieved in a non-regulated setting.
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