Analytical Report - Cook-in-sauces

Introduction

When many consumers prepare food at home, they often use cook-in-type sauces.  From a small base 20 years ago, these have expanded greatly, and the range available is vast, from the original curry and pasta sauces to much more specialised sauces covering a variety of word cuisines e.g. Mexican, Chinese and Indonesian. As processed foods they can contain substantial amounts of salt, as well as fat. A similar albeit smaller survey of cook-in sauces was conducted in 2003 by Kent Trading Standards and it was felt with the interest in salt and fat in our diets that it would be useful to compare results.

Reducing salt and fat intake is a high priority to reduce obesity and diet related ill-health. Excess salt is known to lead to increased blood pressure, which is a risk factor in heart disease.  The Food Standards Agency has set a recommended daily maximum of 6g of salt per day, which compares with the average adult consumption of 8.6g/day (reported in 2008).  They recognise that most of this is “hidden” salt i.e. salt that is contained within manufactured food. This is estimated to supply approximately three quarters of the salt in a typical daily diet.

The FSA is therefore working with the food industry to try to bring down the amount of salt in processed foods and has various campaigns running to try to persuade people to eat less salt.  The Agency has set voluntary salt targets for the industry for a range of everyday foods. This survey therefore sought to determine the levels of salt and fat in a wide range of cook-in-sauces and as nearly all of these are labelled with nutrition information, to compare the salt and fat actually present to that declared.  A check was also made that no artificial colours were present.

 

Summary of results

No artificial colours were found in any of the forty samples.  This mirrors the situation found in a previous survey, five years ago. Colour is obtained, as it is the tradition in countries which originally produced these sauces, by means of spices, natural colours and coloured ingredients like tomato.

Five samples had more salt than that declared, and three contained more fat than declared. These results have to be treated with care as being a single informal sample it cannot be regarded as representative of the whole batch. Further sampling will be carried out to determine if these are ‘one off’s or there is a wider quality control problem.

One sample contained sulphur dioxide preservative, but this was not in the list of ingredients, neither was it labelled as an allergen. This would need to be referred to the relevant trading standards service for the manufacturer in order that this can be rectified.

The fat content ranged from 0.2g/100g to 20g/100g, with an average content of 6.2g/100g.  In 2003, 22 samples surveyed gave an average fat content of 4.8%, significantly lower. However, in the five years that have passed the range of sauces has grown and this may in part be the reason for the increase.

To help consumer make healthier choices, the Food Standards Agency has brought in its front of pack signposting labelling – the Traffic Light Labelling Scheme.  This tries, in a simple way, to tell consumers whether any food they may be considering purchasing contains small, medium or large amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt.  It inevitably has deficiencies, but does provide at-a-glance information provided enabling busy consumers to make an informed choice about the food they purchase.

High (red), Medium (amber), or Low (green)

This is a voluntary scheme but increasing numbers of manufacturers and suppliers are adopting it. Traffic light labelling also serves a secondary function encouraging manufacturers to re-formulate products, to reduce the amount of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt and so be able to label them with more green and amber lights rather than red.

Under the scheme for fat content of the samples analysed in this survey

4 would be marked High (red). 35 Medium (amber) and 1 Low (green)

As cook-in sauces the fat figures need to be considered alongside anything added to make the final dish, for example meat which depending on the species and cut will increase the fat intake. Fish (apart from oily fish which are not usually added to such sauces) and vegetables will not of themselves add significantly to the fat content.

The salt content ranged from 0.2/100g to 4.4g, with an average of 1.2g/100g.

Under the traffic light scheme for salt content

5 would be marked High (red). 34 Medium (amber) and 1 Low (green)

The highest salt content per portion was of Black Bean Stir Fry Sauce which contained 5.41g of salt or 90% of the 6g recommended daily amount for an adult. The recommendation for salt intake of children is much lower than for adults. Two others contained more than a third of the RDA of salt, but one contained a meagre 0.23g, or 4% of the maximum recommended.

The results were also compared against the Food Standard Agency’s voluntary industry targets for salt. Cook in sauces have two targets dependent on the way the sauce is used.

1. One target is for cook in sauces and pasta sauces (where usually the whole jar of sauce is used at one time).  35 of the samples fitted into this category and 25 of the samples were within the 1.1g salt per 100g of product target.
2. Five of the other products better fitted into the category of sauces intended to be used in smaller quantities e.g. stir fry sauces, or sauces where a spoonful of the product is used at one time and the remainder stored in the fridge. 3 of the samples were within the 3g per 100g of product target.

These targets are for 2010 and as salt has to be gradually reduced so as not to negatively affect consumer taste it is not surprising that some products exceed the salt targets. However it is encouraging that there are products available for consumers that are below the target levels.

 

May 2008