Chinese takeaways and ready meals should carry compulsory health warning labels on menus and packaging to alert consumers to “astonishing and harmful” salt levels, UK health experts have recommended.
The worst-offending Chinese takeaway dishes in a survey published on March 13 by Action on Salt were found to have as much salt as five McDonald’s Big Macs, while many had more than half an adult’s entire daily allowance.
Supermarket Chinese ready meals were also laden with salt, with some containing more than the amount found in two Pizza Express margherita pizzas, the report reveals. Some rice dishes contained more salt than 11 bags of ready salted crisps.
Photo: Pixabay
照片：Pixabay
Action on Salt is leading a group of health experts in calling on Public Health England to set tough new salt targets, make front-of-pack labelling mandatory and to follow New York’s lead by requiring chains to put warning labels on high-salt dishes. They are also urging the food industry and restaurants to reduce salt by reformulating takeaways and ready meals.
Of 141 supermarket Chinese ready meals analysed, nearly half (43 percent) were high in salt — containing more than 1.5g/100g, or 1.8g per portion — which would trigger a red “traffic light” label.
“Salt is the forgotten killer as it puts up our blood pressure, leading to tens of thousands of unnecessary strokes, heart failure and heart attacks every year,” said Graham MacGregor, the chairman of Action on Salt and a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University of London.
“Reducing salt is the most cost-effective measure to reduce the number of people dying or suffering from strokes or heart disease.”
Accompanying rice dishes, spring rolls and prawn crackers — and soy sauce — can pile on the salt in a Chinese meal.
Dishes from six Chinese restaurants were also analysed, with 97 percent found to contain 2g of salt or more. More than half (58 percent) contained in excess of 3g of salt per dish: Half an adult’s maximum recommended daily intake.
(The Guardian)
英國健康專家建議，外帶餐廳或是超市販售的即食中式料理，應該在菜單中以及包裝上強制加上健康危害警告標語，提醒消費者餐點中的含鹽量達到「令人驚恐而且有害」的程度。
英國組織「抗鹽行動」在三月十三日發布一項調查結果，發現那些對健康造成最嚴重危害的外帶型中式料理，其中鹽分的含量相等於五個麥當勞大麥克堡，還有許多菜餚的含鹽量超過一個成人每日食鹽建議攝取量的一半。
這份報告同時揭露出超市的即食中式料理同樣充滿著鹽分，其中一些菜餚含鹽量遠超過連鎖義式餐廳Pizza Express的兩個瑪格麗特披薩。某些米飯類料理所含的鹽分甚至超過十一袋加鹽的洋芋片。
「抗鹽行動」組織率領一群健康專家，向英國公共衛生部呼籲應制定嚴格的新鹽分標準、強制食物包裝正面必須加上標示，並且仿效紐約之前率先採取的行動，也就是要求連鎖超市或餐廳必須在高鹽分菜餚的包裝上加註警語。他們同時也呼籲食品產業和餐廳重新設計外帶與即食料理的成份，減少其中的鹽分。
在經過分析的一百四十一種中式即食料理中，有接近半數（百分之四十三）的菜餚含鹽量過高──每一百克的菜餚中就有超過一點五克的鹽，或是一份菜餚中含有一點八克的鹽──可能導致身體中的鹽分攝取亮起紅燈。
「抗鹽行動」的理事長葛拉漢‧麥可葛瑞格表示：「食鹽是經常遭到忽略的殺手，它會增加我們的血壓，每年導致好幾萬個可以避免的中風、心臟衰竭，以及急性心臟病等案例」。葛拉漢‧麥可葛瑞格同時也是倫敦瑪麗王后大學心血管醫藥研究部門的教授。
「要減少中風或心臟疾病的死亡人數或罹病者數量，減少鹽分是最有效率又成本最低的措施。」
中式餐點如果搭配米飯類菜餚，或是春捲和蝦餅──再淋上醬油──鹽分就會大幅增加。
這個組織同時也分析了六間中式餐廳的多種料理，有百分之九十七的菜餚含有兩公克或以上的鹽分。超過半數（百分之五十八）的菜餚每份的含鹽量甚至超過三公克──這已經是一位成人每日食鹽建議最大攝取量的一半了。（台北時報章厚明譯）
DID YOU KNOW?
In the UK in the early twentieth century, packaged potato chips were unseasoned because companies had yet to develop the technology to add seasoning to the snack during the manufacturing process. One company came up with the idea of including a packet of salt inside the bag of chips so that consumers could season the chips to their own taste.
在二十世紀初期，英國還沒有工廠能夠在製造洋芋片的過程中灑上鹽巴，所以袋裝洋芋片大多是無調味的。某間洋芋片公司在當時想出一個辦法，那就是在包裝中加附一小包鹽，讓消費者自行決定洋芋片的鹹度。
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