Salt calculator

Many people in the UK are increasing their health risks by eating too much salt. Cutting down will help to reduce blood pressure (whether or not your blood pressure is already high) and lower the risk of having heart disease or a stroke – whatever your age. If you have high blood pressure, cutting down on salt could lower your blood pressure in just a matter of weeks.

Adults should have less than 6g of salt per day.
Our salt calculator is designed to calculate the amount of salt in food and how much this is of your recommended daily allowance. 6g of salt is about a teaspoonful which is not a large amount, especially when 75% of the salt we eat is already present in everyday foods.

It's important to remember that salt is made up of sodium and chloride, and it's the sodium in salt that can be bad for your health. Always look for the amount of sodium in the nutritional information on food packet labels.

Entering your information.
Enter your food item – you can choose up to five. You may wish to add an item for each meal of the day to give yourself a total daily salt intake figure and the percentage of your 6g daily limit. For example, enter an item for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner.

Enter the number of grams (g) of sodium in 100g food. You can find this information on most food packet labels.

Then enter the amount of this food you're planning to eat (in grams). This might be the whole pack or a smaller serving. Don't worry about not knowing exact amounts – a rough indication is fine.

The calculator will tell you how much salt is in the pack or serving and what percentage it is of your daily limit.

Remember that most foods contain some salt. If you eat foods that are high in salt, it can be very easy to go over your daily limit. This is why it's important to choose foods that are lower in salt, when you can. To find out more about salt and its role in your health, go to www.salt.gov.uk