Moves to cut salt levels in bacon and ham risk increasing potentially fatal cases of the paralysing food bug botulism, the Food Standards Agency has been warned.

Ham processors are particularly concerned at moves to reduce salt content to 2.13g per 100g by 2010 and to 1.75g by 2012. They said their concern was not because of a resistance to change, but was related to the health risks.

Other food sectors are also unhappy about the revised salt reduction targets from the watchdog, which they insist are putting consumers off sandwiches and ready meals.

The issue threatens to create a rift between the food industry and the agency. But health campaigners are urging the FSA to stand firm and to resist what they say is scaremongering from an industry reluctant to change its manufacturing practices.

A 10-slice packet of ham contains just under two teaspoons of salt.

Malcolm Kane, an independent food technology consultant who advises the campaign group Consensus Action of Salt in Health, suggested that the objections from industry were because companies feared the shelf-life of products may have to be reduced below the current average of ten-day “use by” dates: “I’m disappointed. It is just a feeble excuse for doing nothing about salt levels. They don’t want to lower salt levels because they are nervous about consumer reaction and people not liking the taste with less salt.”

The agency suggested last month that 14,000 premature deaths a year could be avoided if adults reduced salt intake to 6g a day. The current average is 8.6g a day, already down from 9.5g in 2001.

Claire Cheney, director-general of the Provision Trade Federation, which represents leading processed meat companies, has denounced the targets as unrealistic and a potential risk to human health. “If you have not got sufficient preservative in a product like ham you get pockets where the salt levels are too low to prevent the formation of the botulism toxin.”

She told The Grocer magazine: “This will force us to reduce it [the shelf-life] further and with that come serious food safety concerns, not least the risk of botulism.” She said that salt was in the product for technological reasons not for taste. Her view is supported by the British Meat Processors Association. Elizabeth Andoh-Kesson, its technical manager, said: “We are very worried about the stricter targets and believe that reducing salt further has implications for food safety and shelf life of products,” she said.

Other trade associations are also objecting to further salt cuts. Jim Winship, the chairman of the British Sandwich Association, denounced the targets as “absolutely staggering”.

He said: “We are already getting complaints from retailers that consumers don’t like the blandness of many sandwiches to meet existing salt targets. Sandwich makers don’t add salt to sandwiches at all but it is in products such as cheese, bacon and ham. We’ll soon be at a point where people stop buying sandwiches and make them at home where they add as much salt as they want. This would affect an important industry. We sell 2.8 billion packs of sanwiches a year with a market value of £5.25 billion.”

Ready-meal manufacturers such as Northern Foods and Kerry Foods, which are represented by the Chilled Food Association, are also anxious that further salt reductions will affect their £9 billion a year market. Kaarin Goodburn, the secretary-general, said: “We are already reformulating many recipes but we have got reports that consumers don’t like the taste especially in some healthy ranges of meals, such as lasagne, where there has been a decline in sales. What’s the incentive to reformulate if it results in falling sales? People are already putting in lots more herbs instead of salt but many people don’t like the taste. “ Peter Sherratt, the general secretary of the Salt Association, said that feed-back from its members suggested that the agency targets had gone too far.”

Rare but deadly

— Botulism is a rare but potentially fatal infection caused by toxins that are produced by bacteria

— The toxins are the most potent naturally occurring poison known to science, attacking the nervous system and causing paralysis

— There are three types of botulism: food-borne (contacted through improper preservation); infant (contacted through consumption of spores); and wound (contacted through spores entering an open wound)

— In the UK, there have been 33 reported cases of food-borne botulism and six cases of infant botulism in the past 25 years – though there were 22 cases of wound botulism in 2006 alone

— Salt intake for babies and children should be much lower than adults. Babies up to a year should have less than 1g a day

— Salt should not be added to food made for a baby, and babies should not be given food not specifically made for them, such as breakfast cereals or pasta sauces, as these can be high in salt

Sources: Food Standards Agency; NHS

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