There is strong evidence that a high salt intake from the diet results in hypertension which is the leading cause of stroke and cardiovascular diseases. Hypertension accounts for around 7.5 million deaths worldwide (WHO, 2011), and as per the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life (2009), the prevalence of hypertension among Mauritians is 37.9%. Save your life by limiting the consumption of processed and fast foods and your dietary salt intake to less than 5g per day!

1. An assessment of the risk of excessive salt intake from ready-to-eat
(RTE) and convenience foods
Habeeba Hajrah Nobee
Bsc (Hons) Food Safety and Quality, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mauritius
 Table salt or sodium chloride is the primary source of sodium
in the diet.
 Excessive dietary salt intakes is linked to hypertension and
other non-communicable diseases.
 In Mauritius, prevalence of hypertension is high, and dietary
salt intakes exceed Mauritian and WHO recommendations for
salt intake (viz. 6g/day and 5g/day respectively).
1. INTRODUCTION
 To analyse the salt content of a selection of different types of
RTE/convenience foods available in Mauritius.
 To compare the Mohr’s titrimetric method of salt determination
with the flame photometric method.
 To estimate the salt intake from the consumption of the
selected foods in formulated meals and diets.
 To evaluate risk of an excessive salt intake based on the WHO
recommendation from consumption of the selected foods.
 For accuracy and repeatability, sodium and sodium chloride
standards were run between flame photometry and Mohr’s
titration measurements respectively.
 Paired t-test carried out on each sample at 5% level to test the
difference between Mohr titration and Flame photometry.
2. OBJECTIVES
3. MATERIALS AND METHODS
 Significant difference between the two analytical methods for
almost all food samples analysed (p<0.05).
 Use of sodium-containing compounds, ingredients naturally rich
in sodium, and/or preservative technique like salting increased
the salt content of the foods.
 Foods with a high salt content significantly impacted on the
overall salt intake.
 As the number of food servings and/or serving size increased,
so did the total salt content of the foods.
 Multiple servings of least and moderately salted foods
contributed to 1g or more of salt in a single diet, and greater
than 2g in some of the formulated diets.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 Most foods selected had moderate to high salt content.
 High risk associated with RTE/convenience foods since eating
a variety of these foods can easily exceed the WHO
recommended dietary salt intake (5g/day).
 Flame photometry was more accurate, reliable and precise
than Mohr’s titration.
5. CONCLUSION
Factors affecting overall salt or sodium intake per day
3. MATERIALS AND METHODS
RTE/Convenience food samples
Serving
size (g)
Mohr
titration
Flame
photometry
Salt content per
serving of food (g)
Chicken flavour bouillon 10 7.50 6.16
Dried shrimp 28 4.31 5.43
Instant mashed potato 60 2.19 2.17
Cheeseburger 125 2.09 3.23
Fried rice 250 2.03 4.03
Fried noodles 250 1.98 3.85
Dried bombay duck 28 1.24 1.30
Corned mutton 70 1.23 2.12
Baked beans in tomato sauce 130 0.923 1.22
Corned beef 70 0.917 1.68
Cheese flavoured chicken sausages 40 0.792 0.984
‘Dholl puri’ (Flatbread stuffed with dholl) 125 0.738 0.863
Corn flakes 40 0.724 1.26
Banana chips 40 0.700 0.936
White bread 100 0.650 0.960
Cheese pizza 60 0.606 0.828
Chicken luncheon meat 28 0.591 1.04
Marinated chicken 70 0.546 0.903
Roasted and salted peanuts 40 0.512 0.576
Processed cheddar cheese 25 0.508 0.923
Chicken ham 30 0.438 1.02
Crabsticks 25 0.350 0.533
Vegetarian chicken burger 30 0.315 0.765
‘Sev’ (Chickpea flour based fried snack) 30 0.309 0.420
Tuna flakes in brine 45 0.306 0.500
Smoked marlin 25 0.273 0.463
Potato croquettes 25 0.238 0.275
Fish balls 12 0.222 0.290
Fresh sausage 12 0.199 0.354
‘Gateau piment’ (Savoury chickpea
flour based fried snack)
12 0.184 0.250
Fish nuggets 25 0.148 0.275
Vegetarian samoosa 8 0.029 0.034
Table 1. Salt content of the foods analysed in descending order of salt content
Frozen, dry, chilled & packaged/canned foods,
ready-prepared meals and savoury snacks
Highlysaltedfoods
(>1.017gsalt/serving)
Moderatelysaltedfoods
(ca.0.356-1.017gsalt/serving)
Leastsaltedfoods
(<ca.0.356gsalt/serving)
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Saltintake(g)/day
Case scenarios (formulated meals)
Mohr's titration
Flame
photometry
Figure 2. Salt intake (g/day) for diets formulated with selected RTE/convenience foods
Mauritian
recommended
salt intake
WHO
recommended
salt intake
Case scenarios
MENU 2:
Salt intake (g) / day:
M.T: 5.16 ; F.P: 7.85 > 5g
• 3 servings white bread;
• 4 servings ‘gateau piment’
(savoury chickpea flour based
fried snack);
• 2 servings vegetarian burger, and
• 2 servings baked beans in tomato
sauce
Sample preparation
(32 foods x 3 replicates)
Dry ashing
ISO 2171:2007 (E);
4 hours at 500 °C in
muffle furnace
Mohr's titration (M.T)
AOAC Method 941.18;
0.1M silver nitrate; 5%
potassium chromate
Flame photometry (F.P)
Flame photometer 410;
sodium standards
Determination of
Moisture content
ISO 1573:1980;
Oven-drying at 102°C
Formulation of meals and diets
15 case scenarios; 1-4 servings of the different selected foods
MENU 4: Salt intake
• 4 servings fish balls, and (g) / day
• 1 serving chicken flavour M.T: 8.39 > 5g
bouillon F.P: 7.32 > 5g
MENU 15: Salt intake
• 1 serving fried rice, and (g) / day
• 2 servings fried noodles M.T: 5.98 > 5g
F.P: 11.73 > 5g
Figure 1. Overview of experimental design