Parents are being warned that some of the UK's biggest restaurant chains are serving dishes which contain unacceptably high levels of salt. According to a survey by health campaign Action Salt, a third of meals (34 per cent) contained 2g or more of salt - or two thirds of a four to six year old's maximum daily limit.
Feeding children can be tough at the best of times. The good thing about cooking at home is you are in control of what goes into their meals.
In contrast, it's tough for parents to know what exactly goes into their children's dishes when eating out. While the body needs a small amount of salt to survive, too much can have negative impacts on the body, ones which can follow children into their adult years.
Of the 302 meals surveyed, 41 per cent were high in salt, containing more than 1.8g. The saltiest meal was Gourmet Burger Kitchen's cheeseburger with skinny fries containing 4.8g of salt.
The survey found similar dishes contained significantly different amounts of salt depending on the restaurant, with Prezzo's spaghetti Bolognese containing 3.2g compared with Beefeater spaghetti Bolognese with 0.3g.
Restaurants have been asked to gradually reduce the amount of salt being added to their dishes, with a target set of no more than 1.71g for children's meals
However, nearly half (43 per cent) of the survey meals exceeded this level. More than three quarters of meals served at Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Pizza Hut exceed the salt target, in comparison to Brewer's Fayre, Burger King and Ikea, where all their children's dishes fell below 1.71g, Action on Salt said.
Action on Salt nutritionist Sonia Pombo said: "It has been three years since our previous survey was undertaken exposing the unacceptably high salt dishes served up in UK restaurants and it is now abundantly clear that no progress has been made. These stark new findings should be a wakeup call to the sector to make children's health a priority."
Graham MacGregor, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Queen Mary University of London and chairman of Action on Salt, said: "Gradually reducing the salt that is added to our food is the most cost-effective measure for lowering blood pressure and thereby reducing the thousands of strokes and heart disease that are caused by this excessive salt intake.
"Ministers must now force recalcitrant restaurants to stop adding all of this salt with a mandatory reformulation programme, better labelling and restrictions on marketing and promotions to truly stop this flood of unhealthy food being served up and putting our children's future health at risk."
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