The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, Australia.
CMAJ. 2012 Jun 12;184(9):1023-8. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.111895. Epub 2012 Apr 16.
Several fast food companies have made commitments to reduce the levels of salt in the foods they serve, but technical issues are often cited as a barrier to achieving substantial reductions. Our objective was to examine the reported salt levels for products offered by leading multinational fast food chains.
Data on salt content for products served by six fast food chains operating in Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States were collected by survey in April 2010. Mean salt contents (and their ranges) were calculated and compared within and between countries and companies.
We saw substantial variation in the mean salt content for different categories of products. For example, the salads we included in our survey contained 0.5 g of salt per 100 g, whereas the chicken products we included contained 1.6 g. We also saw variability between countries: chicken products from the UK contained 1.1 g of salt per 100 g, whereas chicken products from the US contained 1.8 g. Furthermore, the mean salt content of food categories varied between companies and between the same products in different countries (e.g., McDonald's Chicken McNuggets contain 0.6 g of salt per 100 g in the UK, but 1.6 g of salt per 100 g in the US).
The salt content of fast foods varies substantially, not only by type of food, but by company and country in which the food is produced. Although the reasons for this variation are not clear, the marked differences in salt content of very similar products suggest that technical reasons are not a primary explanation. In the right regulatory environment, it is likely that fast food companies could substantially reduce the salt in their products, translating to large gains for population health.
一些快餐公司已经承诺减少其供应食品中的盐含量，但技术问题常常被认为是实现大幅减少的障碍。我们的目的是检查由在澳大利亚、加拿大、法国、新西兰、英国和美国运营的主要跨国快餐连锁店提供的产品报告的盐含量。
2010 年 4 月，通过调查收集了在澳大利亚、加拿大、法国、新西兰、英国和美国运营的 6 家快餐连锁店供应的产品的盐含量数据。计算了不同国家和公司内部及之间的平均盐含量（及其范围），并进行了比较。
我们发现不同产品类别的平均盐含量存在很大差异。例如，我们调查中包含的沙拉每 100 克含有 0.5 克盐，而包含的鸡肉产品每 100 克含有 1.6 克盐。我们还观察到各国之间存在差异：英国的鸡肉产品每 100 克含有 1.1 克盐，而美国的鸡肉产品每 100 克含有 1.8 克盐。此外，食品类别的平均盐含量在不同公司和同一产品在不同国家之间也存在差异（例如，在英国，麦当劳的鸡肉麦乐鸡每 100 克含有 0.6 克盐，但在美国每 100 克含有 1.6 克盐）。
快餐食品的盐含量差异很大，不仅因食品类型而异，还因生产食品的公司和国家而异。尽管这种差异的原因尚不清楚，但非常相似的产品的盐含量存在明显差异表明，技术原因不是主要解释。在适当的监管环境下，快餐公司很可能会大幅降低其产品中的盐含量，这将对人口健康带来巨大收益。
