High street restaurant dishes contain more salt than McDonald's

By Michelle Perrett

- Last updated on GMT

High street restaurant dishes contain more salt than McDonald's

Related tags Fast food

High street restaurants and pubs have some of the highest salt dishes on menus, research from Dr Wayne Osborne for Treated.com has revealed.  

PizzaExpress came in top with its Napoletana Pizza containing 9.6g of salt. This was followed by Barburrito’s Beef burrito wrap at 8 grams while pub chain Wetherspoons Gammon and Eggs came in at 8.8 grams of salt.

Chains including Ask, Beefeater and Harvester also featured on the top 10 restaurant chains with the highest salt dish.

However, the operators with the least saltiest dishes were also from some of the same restaurant chains.

Yo Sushi came in lowest for its Tuna sashimi at 0.1 grams followed by Ask Spaghetti Bolognese at 0.3 grams and Wagamama Sirloin and Shitake Mushroom Salad at 0.6 grams. Wetherspoons, which scored highly for its Gammon and Eggs,  also offers a low salt Salmon salad at 0.6 grams.

Many fast-food operators, which have had a lot of criticism about health of their foods fared better. Burger King Whopper and fries came in the highest salt at 3.7 g per serving. This was followed by KFC fully loaded box meal at 3.44 grams and Domino’s Personal Pepperoni Passion at 3.35 grams.

However, the report was critical as it could only find information for a limited selection of the high street chains. It praised the chains in its research for being transparent with their nutritional information. 

NHS guidelines recommend adults eat no more than 6g of salt a day, equivalent to around one teaspoon.

Amount of salt in chain restaurant dishes:

Restaurant

Style

Dish name 

Salt per serving (g)

Pizza Express   

Italian            

Napoletana

9.6

Barburrito

Street food

Beef burrito wrap*

9

Wetherspoons 

Pub food

Gammon and eggs

8.8

Ask

Italian

Risotto pescatore

8.6

Beefeater

Pub food

Mixed grill

8.1

Harvester

Farmhouse

Mixed grill

8.01

Wagamama

Japanese

Grilled duck ramen

7.6

Zizzi

Italian

King prawn diavola rustica

7.5

Tortilla

Street food

Barbacoa burrito**

7.4

Nando's

Mozambican   

Chicken livers and crispy Portuguese roll     

5.1

Yo Sushi

Japanese

Chicken yakisoba

4.3

Loch Fyne

Seafood

Chorizo and seafood fregola

3.43

Leon

Healthy

Moroccan meatballs hot box

3

Fast food outlets:

Chain

Dish name

Salt per serving (g)

Burger King    

Whopper and regular fires 

3.7

KFC

Fully loaded box meal

3.44

Domino's

Personal Pepperoni Passion

3.35

Taco Bell

Double Decker Taco and Regular Nacho Chips     

3.1

McDonald's

Big Mac and Regular Fries

2.9

Subway

6-inch Italian Subway Melt

2.3

Wimpy

The Original Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal  

2.1

Pizza Hut

Small Italian Supreme

2.04

Read the full set of results on Dr Wayne's medical blog here.

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