New research reveals excessive levels of salt in popular ‘coffee shop’ treats

A survey of 159 bakery treats and 28 popular hot beverages from the six major high street coffee shop chains found that a hot drink and a sweet treat such as a piece of cake or a cookie can contain shocking amounts of salt. The worst offender, a luxury fruit scone from Caffè Nero, contains 2.1g of salt – the equivalent to that found in a McDonald's Big Mac (2.1g salt). Add to this a Caffè Nero Hot Chocolate with 0.33g salt and you could be having as much as 2.43g of salt on top of your regular meals; the same amount of salt consumed by eating nearly five packets of crisps. "Going out for a coffee and a muffin is a popular calorie-laden treat, but many people don't realise sweet foods can also contain unnecessary salt," says Katharine Jenner, CASH Campaign Manager. "High levels of salt can leave you feeling uncomfortably bloated and sluggish, symptoms of 'water retention'. More seriously, in the long term salt intake is linked to health problems such as osteoporosis and high blood pressure". Out of the products surveyed, muffins were found to be consistently high in salt, on average containing double the amount found in cupcakes. As many as 85% of muffins surveyed were found to contain more salt than a packet of crisps compared to only 9% of the surveyed cupcakes. Although the salt content of many of these products is still high, there have been notable improvements in the salt content of coffee shop treats since 2008. For instance, the average salt content of muffins and pastries has been reduced by a quarter. "It is absurd that a sweet muffin contains more salt than a Bacon and Egg McMuffin" says Professor Graham MacGregor of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine and Chairman of CASH. "Clearly the manufacturers still have a long way to go if we are to reduce our salt intake to 6g a day and save the maximum number of lives. Every gram of salt removed from our diet is estimated to prevent 6,000 deaths each year from heart attacks, heart disease and strokes, creating potential healthcare savings of £1.5billion per year." The differences between products in the same coffee shop can be huge. Simply by swapping the Luxury Fruit Scone and Hot Chocolate from Caffé Nero (2.43g), for their Belgian Chocolate Brownie with 0.19g salt and a Cappuccino with 0.09g, you would save a massive 2g of salt. "Swapping salty treats for others with less salt, often available at the same cafe, is a really good step to take to reduce your salt intake" says CASH Nutritionist Hannah Brinsden. "Unfortunately there is almost no nutritional information available in store, making it very hard for people to make a healthy choice."