Veggie sausages contain FIVE TIMES as much salt as a bag of crisps

Just two sausages from one company would provide virtually the entire day's salt ration for an adult and too much for a child.

To coincide with National Vegetarian Week, which begins today, researchers from Consensus Action on Salt and Health analysed a selection of meat-free products.

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They discovered that some veggie burgers and sausages contain the same amount of salt as five bags of crisps.

The saltiest product was a Fry's Vegetarian Traditional Sausage at 2.8g, which is four times more than the pork equivalent.

Two of these would provide 5.6g of salt, which is close to the 6g figure that is the recommended maximum daily intake for an adult.

This would exceed the 5g recommended daily maximum for a child aged seven to ten, and be almost double the limit of 3g for those aged four to six.

CASH researchers found large variations in the amount of salt in vegetarian sausages.

For example, a Linda McCartney Vegetarian Sausage had 38 per cent more than an equivalent Quorn product.

Two Cauldron vegetarian Lincolnshire sausages contain 2g of salt, some 40 per cent more than the 1.2g found in two Asda Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausages.

The saltiest burgers in the survey were Fry's Vegetarian Traditional Burgers and Fry's Vegetarian Spiced Burgers, each with a salt reading of 1.8g. This level was six times higher than the equivalent Asda meat burger.

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CASH nutritionist Carrie Bolt said: "With the barbecue season already upon us, many people may think that going meat-free is a healthier option.

"We would urge them to look carefully at the labelling to help make sure that they are buying lower-salt products wherever they can.

"Confusingly, many of these products give only the sodium levels on pack. These need to be multiplied by 2.5 to get the salt levels."

Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at St George's Hospital Medical School in London, said: "We all need to make sure we eat less salt, as the amount that we currently eat puts up our blood pressure and this is the major cause of strokes and heart attacks.

"A lot of work has been done by the food industry to reduce the salt content of meat products such as sausages and burgers.

"The same should now be done by manufacturers of vegetarian products.

"Some products do have lower levels of salt, which prompts the question why some have around the same salt content as Atlantic sea water."

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A Food & Drink Federation spokesman said: "The industry has been working hard for years to reduce the salt content of its products.

"Efforts in this area by members of our Vegetarian and Meat-Free Food Industry Group are no exception."