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Many wheat and dairy-free foods available in supermarkets contain much higher amounts of salt than their standard counterparts, according to a survey carried out by health campaigners.
Research into 71 supermarket own-label products from "Free From" ranges, where the products are free from gluten, wheat or dairy, showed more than half had higher salt levels than the standard version.
Fewer than a third of the Free From ranges sampled had lower salt levels, according to the research carried out by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash), which campaigns to highlight the damage to health caused by excessive salt consumption.
One product, Sainsbury's freefrom Jaffa Cakes, were shown to have 0.67g of salt per 100g, compared with 0.1g of salt per 100g in standard Sainsbury's Jaffa Cakes, researchers said, more than six times the salt level of the standard version.
Katharine Jenner, nutritionist and Cash campaign manager, said: "Many people in the UK suffer from food allergies such as coeliac disease. Sufferers are unable to tolerate gluten, a protein found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye. Many other people also follow a wheat or dairy free diet through choice as they feel that they are intolerant to these ingredients.
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"But we don't think they should be risking their health further by consuming high-salt Free From products. Many of the products we surveyed were cakes, biscuits and pastries, which people probably wouldn't expect to have any salt in them at all, so it's all the more shocking to find such large differences between the standard and Free From versions.
"Interestingly, some of the Free From products we surveyed had lower levels of salt than their standard counterparts, which shows that there is no technical reason why Free From products have to have higher salt levels."
A spokeswoman for Sainsbury's said: "We take salt reduction very seriously, and are actively working on reducing the salt levels in our freefrom range. As of January 2010 all Sainsbury's freefrom products will meet the FSA's 2010 or 2012 salt targets and will be nutritionally comparable to the equivalent products in our main ranges."
British Heart Foundation (BHF) senior dietician Victoria Taylor said eating too much salt on a regular basis is linked to raised blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease. She said: "Once again this research highlights how consumers are faced with a barrage of information in the supermarket. A single, consistent front of pack food labelling system would allow us all to see what's really in our food, at a glance."
