cheese

After my sojourn amongst the cheese mongers of Cheshire I couldn’t resist this story which tells us (and wearing a more serious hat  it points to the challenges as well as the opportunities offered by local food):

Many popular cheeses on sale in UK supermarkets contain high levels of salt, despite meeting government reduction targets as part of the drive to improve public health, campaigners have warned.

Halloumi and imported blue cheese such as Roquefort contained the most salt – more than sea water – while cottage cheese contained the least, according to a major new research study carried out by Cash (Consensus Action on Salt & Health) and published in the British Medical Journal.

The average salt content of cheddar – the UK’s favourite – tends to be higher in branded products including Cathedral City than in supermarket own-label cheddar, while supermarkets are also better than manufacturers at reducing salt levels, the study found. Many large producers – including Dairy Crest and Kerry Foods – have not signed up to the Deparment of Health’s 2012 and new 2017 salt reduction pledge.

Cheese is one of the major contributors of salt to the UK diet and is widely consumed: an average person consumes nine kilos every year. But the study found that high salt intake raises blood pressure and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (ie strokes, heart attacks and heart failure) and kidney disease.

The new study – published in the online journal BMJ Open – is based on an extensive survey of 612 British and imported cheese products sold in UK supermarkets in 2012, using data on the labels to analyse the salt content (g/100g). It looked at the salt reduction targets for ten popular cheeses set by the Food Standards Agency watchdog and implemented by the Department of Health, to be achieved by 2012. While 85% (333 of the 394) of cheeses have already met their targets, 81% (318 of 394) would still get a red (which means ‘high’) colour rating under the so-called ‘traffic light’ labelling scheme.