Consumer beware: Research conducted today finds that people are often getting more salt than they intended from their fast food.
Scientists in the UK have tested food products bought from many local restaurants and shops in the area. Foods often had a wide difference between the actual amount of salt listed on the label, with almost half containing more than advertised. The findings suggest that menu labels should only be seen as a rough guide to the levels of salt and other nutrients you might get from any given food, the researchers said.
“Consumers should be aware that labels are largely indicative,” lead author Gunter Kuhnle, a professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Reading, told Gizmodo.
Eating disorders
Kuhnle and his colleagues have been studying how to accurately measure the nutrients we get from the foods we eat for a long time.
Their past work has shown that even compounds that occur naturally in foods can vary greatly in composition, which can affect the nutritional composition of foods from one day to the next. Next, they wanted to see if the same kind of difference could be seen in regular meals such as those served at fast food restaurants. They focus on playing sodium as too much salt is a known risk for health conditions such as stroke and heart disease, and even a small gap in the actual and labeled salt content can have significant ripple effects.
They bought 39 meals from 23 restaurants, including popular chains like McDonald’s and local restaurants, across Reading, Berkshire, England. Food consisted of the usual items such as pizza, hamburgers, pasta, and sandwiches. The food was frozen, freeze-dried, and placed in the laboratory for testing.
Not all restaurants include sodium labels on their menu items. But for those who did, many of their meals did not match what was written on the label, and often had more salt than expected. Overall, 47% of labeled foods have higher levels of salt than declared, the researchers found. Some foods contain enough salt in one serving to exceed the daily amount recommended by health authorities, especially pasta (the UK recommends no more than 5 grams of salt per day, while the World Health Organization advises less than 5 grams per day).
The team’s findings were published Wednesday in PLOS One.
What to do about mislabeling
Kuhnle notes that he is not familiar with US food policies, including whether there are significant differences in how restaurants are typically prepared.
But the study included food from many popular chains available, such as Burger King, Domino’s, KFC, and Subway. And his work has emphasized that nutrient diversity in food is a widespread issue that cannot be isolated to any one country. Small differences in the way foods are made or processed, the amount of ingredients used in certain foods, and portion sizes can all affect nutrition. So this finding is only the latest to show that menu labels should not be seen as gospel.
“Food composition varies greatly, and that means food composition labels and tables can only be used as a guide, but not to accurately calculate food intake,” says Kuhnle. This is not just a problem for fast food lovers, he adds, but also for nutrition researchers. So this information should be taken with the proverbial ‘pinch of salt,’ and consumers—and scientists—need to accept these limitations.”
Kuhnle and his team plan to continue studying this topic, hoping to find a way to make menu labeling more relevant to the real world. “The main question is how we can incorporate this diversity into labeling, but also into research,” he said.
In the meantime, many people can benefit from trying to reduce their salt and sodium intake. In the US alone, it is estimated that the average American consumes more than 3,300 milligrams of sodium per day, more than the 2,300 milligrams recommended by groups such as the American Heart Association.
