Low salt, high taste

You’re probably aware of the health risks associated with having too much salt in your diet, including high blood pressure and stroke. Perhaps you’ve cut back on salty snacks or switched to reduced salt versions of baked beans or tomato sauce. You may even have considered a radical overhaul of your lifestyle. Surely swapping something salty like meat will make a difference?

There are certainly some health benefits to cutting back your meat intake, but vegetarians can end up eating lots of processed meat-free options, which are often high in salt.

Research carried out by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) ahead of National Vegetarian Week (19-25 May) looked at over 60 products, including Asda's own meat-free alternatives, to investigate just how salty vegetarian burgers and sausages are.

What about bangers?

The saltiest vegetarian sausage was found to contain 2.8g salt per sausage, so just by having two sausages you’d have consumed 5.6g salt. Even without the bread and ketchup to make a sandwich you would have almost reached the recommended 6g daily salt limit!

Asda fall in the top 10 for low salt vegetarian sausages, with one sausage providing only 0.6g salt and a two-sausage portion making up just 20% of your daily intake.

What about burgers?

With the barbecue season upon us, you may be looking for burgers, too. How salty are these? In CASH's survey, the saltiest burger contained six times as much salt as Asda's meat-free burgers, which contain just 0.3g salt each. Eating two burgers means you’re only consuming 10% of your daily allowance of salt - great news for a hot summer of barbecues!