Some sandwiches contain over 50 per cent of our recommended daily allowance of salt. How can we regulate what we eat, asks Paul Gallagher
NO DATA is currently available in Ireland, but in Britain, consumers spend £5 billion per year on sandwiches alone. One brand leading the sandwich trend both worldwide and in Ireland is the US Connecticut-based food chain Subway, which boasts 30,140 outlets in 87 countries.
The chain has recently announced moves to significantly increase its outlets within the Irish market.
The chain is the leading sandwich seller in the UK with nearly double the sales of its nearest competitor, according to a recent report published by the British Sandwich Association (BSA).
In the Republic, Subway claims to have overtaken McDonald's in terms of store numbers. And in a move that was recently welcomed by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, the company hopes to open a further 119 stores here by 2010.
Subway was recently criticised when it was singled out in a documentary for high and extreme levels of salt in some of its products. One product, the 12in Meatball Marinara Sub, was found to contain 9.4g of salt - as much is found in 18 packs of salted crisps and 20 per cent more than an adult should eat in an entire day.
Quite a number of the sandwiches on offer in the Republic contain levels above 50 per cent of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) and higher.
According to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), in recent decades, evidence has emerged to suggest that high dietary salt intake is an important causal factor in the rise in blood pressure and in the development of hypertension in countries such as Ireland.
There is also evidence that relatively modest reductions in salt intake could potentially lead to a significant fall in average blood pressure.
An Irish lifestyle survey of the adult population conducted last year found one-third of adults either always or usually added salt to food at the table. The FSAI estimates the daily intake of salt for Irish adults to be almost 10g per day, well above the recommended level of 6g per day.
If we reduce salt intake by a half-teaspoon per day, it's believed 900 deaths per year which result from heart attack or stroke could be prevented.
In the UK, the Food Safety Agency (FSA) aims to limit salt in sandwiches by 2010 to 1.3g. The UK watchdog estimates that 14,000 people are dying prematurely each year because of daily overdoses of salt. It has called for the catering industry to change recipes to reduce salt and saturated fat.
Dr Cliodhna Foley-Nolan, director of human health and nutrition with Safefood, the Food Safety Promotion Board, considers anything above 50 per cent in one particular product to be quite a "high level of salt intake" and says: "It's the frequent usage of high-salt content within products that people should be aware of. People may occasionally use high-salt content products as a treat, but when it is part of a regular daily diet this increases links with hypertension [high blood pressure] leading to heart problems associated with high-salt diets.
"The RDA levels are scientific figures which are there for a reason, very often consumers are more interested in whether the product is high on price or out of date."
Since 2005, the FSAI has undertaken a voluntary salt-reduction programme - a commitment aimed at securing a voluntary incremental reduction in the levels of salt. Several manufacturers and promoters have taken part in the initiative, including international and national registered companies, as well as a range of sandwich suppliers and manufacturers.
The FSAI, through partnership with the food industry and State bodies, has a long-term goal to reduce the average population intake of salt from 10g a day to 6g a day by 2010.
Looking at some of the Subway offers currently on sale in the Irish market, one particular brand, the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Sub, is one of the chain's 6in Lite Subs marketed as having less than 6g of fat. The sub also includes a salt content which comes in at just over 61 per cent of the RDA.
When the sub is compared against nutritional information available online in McDonald's Ireland, it contains a higher salt content than a combination of McDonald's Big Mac Burger and large fries.
Napkins within the Subway store also advertise subs with "6g of fat or less". A look through the nutrition guide which is available within the store (which also includes the line, "perfect if you are watching your waistline") indicated high salt levels in a large number of products.
Five out of eight Subway 6in Lite Subs have salt equivalents that are above 50 per cent of the RDA.
Quite a number of other 6in subs include salt levels of above 60 and 70 per cent. This is not taking into account a number of 12in subs which are also available to consumers and would significantly increase the amounts of salt.
Issues relating to nutritional content involving fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt invariably bring about debate on what should be considered as best practice for product labelling.
The voluntary "traffic light" system designed in the UK by the FSA now has 10,000 different product companies using it on different brands.
A red light warns that a product contains high levels of something that we should be trying to cut down on. A product is given a red rating if it has more than 1.5g of salt per 100g.
For saturated fats the level is 5g in every 100g and a product is given a red light if its fat content is more than 20 per cent.
Fine Gael favours the traffic light system and it was included on a policy document for last year's election campaign. The party claims that Britain has seen a 40 per cent reduction in unhealthy food since its conception.
A recent Channel 4 documentary claims Subway came bottom of the list in terms of salt content with 93 per cent of its sandwiches tested getting a red light.
Michael Creed, Fine Gael spokesman for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, believes some form of labelling system is still required.
"The system at the moment is inadequate as it does nothing to empower consumers. Something which might be fat-free or low in fat may give the impression that it is 'good' for you when that may not entirely be the case.
"People need to make informed choices on all of the information that is available. It is a problem area when one takes into account growing obesity levels and recent surveys suggesting every second Irish person is overweight."
The traffic light system has been rejected by the Government, with some ministers suggesting the system would cause major problems because dairy products, for instance, would get red-light labelling despite their importance in the diets of young children and nutritionists claiming that we are not eating enough of certain dairy products.
The Food and Drink Industry Ireland (FDII) is also not in favour of a traffic light system, favouring instead a Guidance Daily Counter (GDA) method which helps consumers to understand the contribution the intake of the food they are buying will make to their daily intake.
Mc Donald's, which has lead a proactive nutritional campaign in recent years, has a GDA method available on some of its food packaging and on the reverse of its tray lids.
Marks Spencer's sandwiches combine a traffic light colour coding system with percentage GDA, allowing consumers to see at a glance whether the food is high, medium or low in fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt.
Subway provides customers with a nutrition booklet but no reference is made towards RDA or GDA levels. Nor is this particular information available online.
O'Brien's Sandwich Bars, one of the Republic's largest sandwich outlets, does not include nutritional information or guidelines either in its stores or online.
A spokesman for Subway, Matt McKenna, told The Irish Times: "Subway has recently made a number of commitments to reducing salt levels in its products, including a 15 per cent reduction across all products by next June. Further salt- reduction programmes are also planned. The company will also soon be signing up to the FSAI salt-reduction programme.
"Subway is already involved in a salt-reduction programme with the FSA in the UK and salt- reduction future targets in the UK will be also applicable to Ireland," he says.
"Subway has taken on board recent reports of high-salt content in some of their products and are committed to salt reduction across all of their products.
"The company has recently introduced a 'point of order' information system so consumers can see the nutritional content of each sub, which also includes low in fat and low in salt healthy option subs," he adds.
Updated information is available online from the FSAI's "Salt Reduction Programme" for August 2007-August 2008, which includes a recently updated list from the companies which took part in the programme. The list includes a summary of achievements for the past year/years and undertakings for 2008-2009 as well as a summary of additional comments from the FSAI.
Marks Spencer is singled out for praise, with the FSAI stating that "Marks Spencer's comprehensive programme is bearing fruit with many FSA [UK] salt-reduction targets being met before the deadline."
A number of its sandwich brands have made progress in reducing salt content. McDonald's has also been praised for its action relating to salt reduction.
Fresh Ways, a major supplier of sandwiches and part of the Kerry Group, is also singled out for its achievements. Particular mention is given to the company's Healthy Ways brand which are all formulated to less than or equivalent to 2g of salt per pack. Three-quarters of its sandwiches are at or below 2.4g of salt per pack.
O'Brien's Sandwich Bars also appears on the registered company list taking part in the programme. For the 2007-2010 period, a note is made that the project team at O'Brien's "arranged to look at salt reduction in the categories of cured meats, bread, soups sauces and snacks".
The FSAI since noted that "no update has been received" on achievements for 2007-2008.
Additional comments note that "the FSAI is unsure if O'Brien's Sandwich Bars is participating in the salt-reduction programme".