Fast Food Outlets Are Serving Us Mountains of Salt

Fast-food chains are lacing their meals with “shockingly high” levels of salt, an analysis has found.

Scientists studied hundreds of food and drink items and meal combinations at Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King. The saltiest was a Pizza Hut Pizza Plus for 4 family meal. The meal included a Super Supreme pizza, Cheesy Bites Meat Feast, chicken wings, garlic bread, potato wedges and cheesecake, at 49.1g of salt. This meant that each portion contained more than twice the daily intake recommended for an adult or four times the limit for a six-year-old child. Even if the child ate only a sixth of the meal, the salt intake would be 8.2g.

On its website, Pizza Hut gives nutritional information about its dishes and cites government guidelines that adults should eat no more than 6g of salt a day. But no such information is included in menus or leaflets at the point of sale. Similarly, KFC does not give nutritional information on its menus, so no one ordering a KFC Deluxe Boneless Box to share between four people would know that it contained 5.2g of salt per person — almost a whole day’s limit for an adult and more than the recommended maximum for any child under 10.

The saltiest children’s meal was a Pizza Hut Kids’ Chicken Wrap Factory plus soft drink. This meal contained 4.2g per portion. Next worst, with 3.5g, was a KFC Kids’ Mini Fillet burger meal with regular BBQ beans.