Salt as a public health challenge in continental European convenience and ready meals

Autor(en)
Sonja Kanzler, Christina Hartmann, Anita Gruber, Guido Lammer, Karl-Heinz Wagner
Abstrakt

OBJECTIVE: To assess the salt content of continental European convenience and ready meals.

DESIGN: A multistage study in which, after laboratory analysis of the products' salt contents (n 32), new salt-reduced meals were developed through food reformulation. Additionally, a comprehensive survey of convenience meals from the Austrian market (n 572) was conducted to evaluate the salt contents of a wider product range.

SETTING: Six continental European countries participated.

SUBJECTS: No subjects enrolled.

RESULTS: The salt contents of continental European convenience and ready meals mostly exceeded 1·8 g/100 g, which is 30 % of the targeted daily intake level; some contained even more than the recommended daily intake of 6 g. The highest salt contents were found in pizzas and pasta dishes, the lowest ones in sweet meals. Large variations in salt levels were found not only between and within meal type categories, but also between similar meals from different producers. In addition, our approach to develop new salt-reduced meals showed that a stepwise reduction of the ready meals' salt contents is possible without compromising the sensory quality.

CONCLUSIONS: To address the problem of hypertension and increased risk for CVD through high salt intake, a reduction of the salt levels in continental European convenience and ready meals is urgently needed, since they are providing a major part of the daily salt intake. Successful national-wide salt reduction strategies in the UK or Finland have already demonstrated the public health impact of this setting.

Organisation(en)
Department für Ernährungswissenschaften
Journal
Public Health Nutrition
Band
17
Seiten
2459-2466
Anzahl der Seiten
8
ISSN
1368-9800
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980014000731
Publikationsdatum
11-2014
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
303009 Ernährungswissenschaften
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Nutrition and Dietetics, Medicine (miscellaneous)
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3 – Gesundheit und Wohlergehen
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/salt-as-a-public-health-challenge-in-continental-european-convenience-and-ready-meals(38019aeb-ba7e-4972-aebf-d27a4859840e).html