Half of pizzas sold in the UK exceed daily salt limit, says survey

A survey performed by the Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) and World Action on Salt and Health (WASH) has revealed that pizzas from supermarkets, restaurants and takeaways exceed the recommended daily salt limit.

Almost half (48%) of all the pizzas surveyed across the UK were found to exceed the recommended limit for an entire day (6g/day).

The news comes in spite of a survey and new salt reduction target set in 2012 by the UK Department of Health.

The survey also found that around 73% of all restaurants and takeaway pizzas (586 out of 802) tested contained more salt per pizza than the entire maximum daily recommended salt intake.

Pizza outlets including Papa John’s Stuffed Crust Sausage and Pepperoni and Domino’s Hot Dog Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Passion pizza contain around 16g salt per medium-sized pizza, equal to around three teaspoons of salt, which is three times the recommended daily limit.

Tesco’s stuffed crust cheese feast takeaway pizza was found to have the most salt of any bought in a supermarket at 7.2g, while the Co-op’s Loved By Us feta, olive and chargrilled vegetable pizza had the least with 2.4g.

CASH nutritionist Sonia Pombo said: "Most of us aren’t aware of how much salt we actually eat on a daily basis, and thus the danger we are putting ourselves in. With three-quarters of our salt intakes coming from processed foods such as pizza, how are any of us able to choose a healthier diet? We need the food industry to help us improve our diet, not to hide three times more salt than is recommended in a day in a single pizza."

It has also been found that pizzas being manufactured in different countries have huge variations in their salt content.

WASH international programme lead Clare Farrand said: "The fact that some pizza manufacturers are able to produce the same pizzas with much lower levels of salt demonstrates that there are no technical reasons why other pizza manufacturers can’t also do so.

"We urge all pizza manufacturers to reduce salt in all pizzas to the lowest level in all countries if we are to tackle the huge and burdening problem of strokes, heart attacks and heart failure."

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Image: Around 48% of all the pizzas survey across the UK exceeded the recommended limit of salt for an entire day. Photo: courtesy of tiverylucky/freedigitalphotos.net.