The Food Standards Agency (FSA), the food watchdog caved in to pressure from Britain’s food industry over reducing the amount of salt in food products.
Food campaigners are warning that the FSAs stance to lower reduction targets will eventually mean that thousands will die unnecessarily.
Voluntary guidelines were produced by the FSA for food manufacturers on how much salt should be taken out in the next few years. Nearly a third of the targets announced will exceed the proposals they put forward last year.
However officials have been accused of crumbling under pressure from the food industry and as a result the guidelines will allow high levels in many foods. An example is cheese-flavoured crisps which have a higher concentration of salt than there is in sea water.
Other products that contain worryingly high concentrations of salt are mayonnaise, pesto, ketchup and bacon.
Prof Graham MacGregor, chairman of Consensus Action on Salt and Health said, “There are no reasons why salt content cannot be reduced much further.”
The FSA said there targets were “realistic.”
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