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nutrition

nutrition - salt in food - balanced diet - salt in the body

salt in food

the role of salt

For thousands of years, salt has been used to preserve food and improve taste. It has a wide range of uses:

• Seasoning
  Salt is used as a seasoning to enhance the taste of food or make otherwise bland foods palatable, such as bread and pasta.
• Preservative
  For centuries, salt has been used to preserve foods such as meat, fish and dairy products. Even with the development of refrigeration, salt preserving remains an important aid to food hygiene.
• Binding Agent
  Salt acts as a binder as it helps extract the myofibrillar proteins in processed and formed meats, binding the meat together and reducing cooking losses.
• Colour controller
  Used with sugar and nitrate, salt gives processed meats, such as ham, bacon and hot dogs, a more attractive colour. It also enhances the golden colour in bread crust by reducing sugar destruction in the dough and increasing caramelisation.
• Texture aid
  Salt strengthens gluten in bread dough, providing uniform grain, texture and strength, allowing the dough to expand without tearing. It also improves the tenderness of cured meats, and develops rind hardness and even consistency in cheese.
• Fermentation control
  In baked products, salt controls fermentation by retarding the growth of bacteria, yeast and moulds. This is important in making a consistent product and reducing the opportunity for harmful bacteria.

Based upon ‘Sodium Halides, Sodium Chloride’ Bruce M Bertram, Salt Institute.

The amount of salt we consume depends on our individual eating habits, but typically about 20 per cent of our salt intake is from foods that naturally contain salt, such as eggs, meat and fish.

At the table, a typical person adds an estimated 15 per cent of his or her intake to food. The remainder of the salt in our diet is added during cooking or comes from processed foods.

Many foods contribute to total salt intake without being perceived as being salty. For example, white bread and cornflakes both contain salt but, unlike potato crisps or nuts, the salt is contained within the food and not on the surface, where it is more easily detected.

labelling

Manufacturers are legally required to label processed food with nutritional information, to allow consumers to make educated judgements about their diet. The levels of fat, carbohydrate, energy and protein should always be listed, and more manufacturers are now detailing the amount of sodium, saturates, dietary fibre and sugars.

Some labels now display the salt - as well as the sodium -content of the product. For those that do not, you can work out the approximate amount of salt per 100 grammes, by multiplying the sodium content by 2.5.

Click for more information about labelling from BUPA and the British Nutrition Foundation.