Ra 4 Food - Health and Nutritional Tips

So, you’ve decided to give the old chippy a miss at lunch time and gone for a guilt free packed sandwich instead? Well you better check and double check the label, as reports revealed some shop bought sandwiches come complete with more salt than 11 bags of crisps put together, not to mention the grotesque cheese sandwich from Asda which has more saturated fat than and Big Mac - now that is hard to swallow!

Which? are trying to make consumers aware of the reality of the health credentials of these sandwiches - and ask that we make sensible choices  - some pre-packaged sandwiches are ridiculously expensive but do not deliver on quality to reflect the price.

Sandwiches are big business in the UK with two billion bought every year with turnovers topping £5.3 billion. But what’s the point in opting for a potentially healthier choice when you could end up with a Subway six-inch Meatball Marinara - packed full of salt - more than three quarters of the recommended daily limit for adults?

In Asda’s Vintage Cheddar Ploughman’s (minus the mayo), there is a whopping 15.2g of saturated fat - that is over 75 per cent of a woman’s RDA - and shockingly 5.2g more that the sat fat found in a Big Mac. Oh dear. And these figures are not limited to more obvious fatty sandwiches - a vegetarian Wensleydale and Carrot Chutney sandwich sold at Marks & Spencer which sounds healthy enough - topped in at 12.9g of saturated fat - over half a woman’s RDA - and even had as much as five teaspoons of sugar.

Chicken seems to be the consumer’s choice, with more than 30 per cent of us opting for it in some form. If skinless it is high in protein and low in fat and saturated fat - making it a good choice - however, beware the additions that creep in to make a once healthy choice a calorie laden surprise - mayonnaise is the biggest culprit.

And don’t be thinking if you are shelling out more money you will be getting the best quality healthiest sandwich available. For example, take a Morrisons Deep Fill Chicken Salad - only £1.79 yet with great nutritional value considering it being packed with twice as much chicken as a £3.20 Caffè Nero’s Chicken with Oven Roasted Tomatoes and Spinach.

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Butter Roasted Chicken Salad sandwich, a luxury range, was laden with the most calories, while Pret A Manger’s Herb Chicken and Rocket sandwich, coming in at £2.39, contained the most fat and saturated fat.

While we already can see the nutritional credentials of our shop bought sandwiches - why all we have to do is turn the packet over and we could have found all this out ourselves - Which? are trying to campaign to get catering outlets to display all their nutritional information at the point of sale.

Editor of Which?, Martyn Hocking, said, “A sandwich might seem like a pretty healthy option but there can be shocking amounts of salt, sugar and fat in some of them and you’d have no idea if they’re not labelled.”

The good people over at the Food Standards Agency have convinced Subway and Pret A Manger to let customers know how many calories they are about to wolf down - however no word as yet from Caffè Nero, Costa Coffee or Starbucks to do the same - shame on them!

Mr Hocking thinks we should be ditching the take out sandwiches and dusting off the Tupperware/foil to make are own - hurrah to home made!