Salt
Salt is listed on nutrition panels as sodium. Foods with less than 120mg per 100g are low in salt/sodium, while foods with more than 500mg are high in salt.
Salt is often used in packaged foods as a flavour enhancer or preservative. It is also used as a colour developer, binder, to add texture and as a fermentation control agent which means your salt intake can be high without you knowing it.
Reducing your sodium intake can be as easy as switching brands. Did you know that a ham and cheese sandwich can provide a four year old with more than one and a half times the amount of salt they need daily? Salty snack foods and takeaway meals encourage children to develop a taste for salty foods, so the healthy meals you cook for them at home may seem tasteless in comparison.
Choosing foods with the Heart Foundation Tick can help you stay on top of how much salt you and your family is eating.
The below table shows how much sodium is in two typical kids lunches and how much this contributes to their adequate daily intake (%AI). Figures are based on recommended levels of sodium for four to eight year olds (300mg-600mg/per day).
