The new sachets will weigh 0.6g, instead of 0.8g, constituting 10 per cent of an adult’s daily GDA of salt, and reducing Compass’ annual salt procurement by 7.8kg a year.
The move comes as part of a series of pledges made by Compass to consider its customers’ ‘health and wellbeing’ following the publication of the government’s Responsibility Deal in March . Officials want to cut salt in UK food by 15 per cent by the end of 2012.
Mick Hickman, foodservice director at Compass Group said: “This is an industry leading move, and is undoubtedly a really simple and effective way to help people reduce their daily salt intake and take healthier steps towards a balanced diet, all without them even really noticing.”
Nutritional information
In addition to cutting salt volumes, Compass said it has also analysed 2,000 of its recipes to provide accurate nutritional labelling, and is in the process of reviewing 4,000 product specifications in an effort to remove all artificial trans fats from the foo9d it serves by the end of 2011.
Released in March, the Department of Health’s voluntary Responsibility Deal was backed by over 170 food and drink companies, who made their own pledges to help tackle poor diets and alcohol misuse in the UK.
Key pledges include calorie labelling on menus, reducing salt intake by 1g a day by the end of 2012, removal of artificial trans fats from food, and clear alcohol unit labelling on 80 per cent of drinks by 2013.
Among the signatories to the Deal were Enterprise Inns, Pizza Express, JD Wetherspoons and Yo! Sushi, as well as trade organisations the British Hospitality Association and the British Beer and Pub Association.
