Assault on salt
We have been actively engaged in monitoring the salt level in our products for 10 years, and pro-actively reducing the amount of salt in our products since 1998.
We take salt reduction very seriously and were the first retailer to introduce challenging salt reduction targets for our own label products. We’re one of the key market leaders driving salt reduction.
Be label aware
Food labels show the amount of sodium in food. We have converted this into salt figures so you can see at a glance how much salt is in food (to calculate the salt content, multiply the sodium figure by 2.5).
The Guideline Daily Amounts Panel (GDAs) shows how the amount of different nutrients (e.g. fat and sugar) that adults and children (5-10 years) need each day for a healthy diet. Use this panel to see how much salt is in a serving of the food, and compare this with the GDA.
We've made it easier to identify the amount of salt in your food, look out for the traffic light labelling on the front our products.
Look at the label
On Sainsbury’s own brand products you can see at-a-glance how much salt food or drinks contain just by checking the traffic light labelling on the front of pack. Food and drinks that have a red traffic light for salt are high in salt and should be an occasional treat rather than a regular part of the diet. Food and drinks that have a green traffic light for salt are low in salt.
Another way to check the salt is to look at the nutrition information on the back of the pack, we provide information per 100g and per serve and we also colour code the nutrition panel and provide Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) information.
A food or drink which contains less that 0.3g of salt per 100g is low in salt.
Is sea salt is healthier than ordinary table salt?
Although sea salt contains traces of some minerals such as magnesium, calcium and potassium that you don’t find in ordinary (rock) salt – it doesn’t really contain enough to make a significant contribution to your diet. Many chefs prefer to use sea salt, because they believe it has a better flavour but in terms of our health there really isn’t any difference.
