How much salt is in kids’ lunch boxes: Full list of snack foods
Parents planning back-to-school lunches are being urged to avoid unhealthy salty lunch box treats that contain almost the entire day’s salt allowance recommended for a child.
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EXCLUSIVE: In a bizarre twist, school lunch box sweet treats have been exposed as containing record levels of salt.
They contain so much salt that a child would exceed their entire sodium intake for the day by eating a single choc chip muffin.
Obesity campaigners LiveLighter checked the salt content of 20 popular lunch box snacks and have revealed the top 10 saltiest lunch box snacks on the market.
It seems counterintuitive but the worst of the salty offenders actually turned out to be a sweet treat – Woolworths Select Double Choc Chip muffin with 607 mg of sodium per serve.
This exceeds the daily salt intake recommended for children aged 4-8 – and is two thirds of the daily salt intake of a child aged 9-13.
Coles banana bread slice with 393mg of sodium per serve had the second highest salt content among the lunch box snacks tested.
LiveLighter Campaign Manager Alison McAleese said the salt in the sweet treats was high because they contained two different types of baking soda and they were also large portion sizes.
To make matters worse the muffins were also packed with sugar and saturated fat making them even more unhealthy, she said.
The next worst offenders were ‘fake cheese’ flavoured crisps, crackers and dippers with the highest sodium content per 100g among all the products.
LiveLighter is urging parents to steer clear of Cheezels (1200mg of sodium per 100g), Woolworths Crispbread & Cheese Cheddar Dip (1100mg sodium per 100g) and Coles Cheese Spread & Crispbread Snacks (1100mg sodium per 100g).
Each of these products contain nearly a third of the recommended daily sodium intake for 9-13 year-olds and it was only the small pack sizes (25g) that meant they were not as bad as the muffins and banana bread.
Foods with healthy salt levels contain less than 120mg of sodium per 100g and some of cheesy snacks had 10 times that level, the survey found.
“Some of these snacks serve up nearly half the recommended sodium intake a child should eat in one day, not to mention the other processed ingredients,” Ms McAleese said.
“This much salt in a child’s diet puts them at risk of high blood pressure and can lead to chronic diseases in the long run, she said.
Children learn their taste preferences at a young age and would develop lifelong preferences for salty food if they were fed high salt options as youngsters, she said.
Preparing a healthy lunch box was easy if you included yoghurt, fruit or dips with crackers or veggie sticks for healthy snacks, she said.
The sodium warnings come as an Australian father has created a new app to help parents decipher the current food labelling system after the little used health star ratings system was heavily criticised.
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Tim MacDonald’s Init app combines data from the Nutri-Score system selected by the French government to rate healthy foods with data from the Nova score system that rates whether a food is minimally processed or ultraprocessed.
Mr MacDonald, a former journalist who has no nutrition training, said the app was based on peer reviewed internationally recognised rating systems and also had information on food additives and whether food was organic.
The free app covers over 800,000 products and provides a four stage colour-coded rating system of ‘bad’, ‘mediocre’, ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ independently based on global nutrition guidelines.
HOW MUCH SALT IS IN YOUR LUNCHBOX?
Product: Woolworths Select Double Choc Chip Muffin 4pk
Serving size (g): 105g (1 muffin)
Product Size (g): 420g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 607
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 578
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 101%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 76%
Product: Coles Banana Bread Slice
Serving size (g): 100g
Product Size (g): 100g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 393
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 393
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 65.50%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 50%
Product: Coles Double Chocolate Muffins 4 Pack
Serving size (g): 120g
Product Size (g): 480g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 365
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 304
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 60%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 46%
Product: Woolworths Banana Bread Slice
Serving size (g): 100g
Product Size (g): 100g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 299
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 299
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 49%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 37%
Product: Cheezels Multipack 6pk
Serving size (g): 19g
Product Size (g): 114g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 288
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 1200
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 48%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 36%
Product: Woolworths Crispbread & Cheese Cheddar Dip 12 pack
Serving size (g): 25g
Product Size (g): 300g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 275
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 1100
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 45%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 34%
Product: Coles Cheese Spread & Crispbread Snacks 12 Pack
Serving size (g): 25g
Product Size (g): 300g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 275
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 1100
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 45%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 34%
Product: The Laughing Cow Creamy Cheese Dip And Crunchy Breadsticks 4 pack
Serving size (g): 35g
Product Size (g): 140g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 230
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 690
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 38%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 28%
Product: Woolworths Mini Choc Chip Muffin 8 pack
Serving size (g): 40g (1 muffin)
Product Size (g): 320g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 206
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 515
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 34%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 25%
Product: Red Rock Deli Sweet Chilli & Sour Cream 5 pack
Serving size (g): 28g
Product Size (g): 165g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 192
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 687
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 32%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 24%
Product: Uncle Tobys Le Snak Tasty Cheese Dip & Crackers 6 pack
Serving size (g): 22g
Product Size (g): 132g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 195
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 875
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 32.50%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 20%
Product: Twisties – cheese flavour, 6 pack
Serving size (g): 19g
Product Size (g): 114g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 160
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 842
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 26%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 20%
Product: Smith’s Chips Multipack Salt & Vinegar 6 pack
Serving size (g): 19g
Product Size (g): 114g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 151
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 795
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 25%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 18%
Product: Parker’s Multi Pack Pretzels Lightly Salted 6 pack
Serving size (g): 25g
Product Size (g): 150g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 140
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 559
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 23%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 17.50%
Product: Arnotts Jatz Mini Multipack
Serving size (g): 23g
Product Size (g): 184g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 138
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 600
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 23%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 17%
Product: French Fries Multipack Original 6 pack
Serving size (g): 18.5g
Product Size (g): 111g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 133
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 717
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 22%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 16%
Product: Potato Chips Stix – Healtheries Kidscare Chicken 8pk
Serving size (g): 20g
Product Size (g): 160g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 131
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 656
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 22%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 16%
Product: Coles Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins 9 Pack
Serving size (g): 35g
Product Size (g): 315g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 118
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 336
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 19.60%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 15%
Product: Arnott’s Shapes Mini Chicken Crimpy 8 pack
Serving size (g): 25g
Product Size (g): 200g
Sodium content per serve (mg): 216
Sodium content per 100g (mg): 666
% of sodium recommendation per serve (4-8 y.o): 36%
% of sodium recommendation per serve (9-13 y.o): 2%
Originally published as How much salt is in kids’ lunch boxes: Full list of snack foods
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