Salt in bread calculator
Thursday 8 July 2010
If you’re a craft baker and you want to make a real difference to the health of your customers, while maintaining the quality of your bread, use the salt in bread calculator to calculate the levels of salt in your bread and gradually reduce them.
You just need to identify how much flour and salt you use – in grams, pounds or ounces. You can then see where you are in relation to the Food Standards Agency’s 2012 salt target for bread – 1g of salt per 100g of final product – and then start making reductions towards that target.
A quick guide to ‘Reducing salt in bread’ is also available at the link towards the end of this page.
About the calculator and quick guide
These tools have been produced following research by the FSA, the National Association of Master Bakers and Norfolk County Council that looked at whether the craft bakery sector could reduce salt in bread and meet the 2012 salt target.
Research shows that bakers can reduce the level of salt in bread by 25% over six weeks and customers will not notice the difference. The recipes were tested in commercial craft bakers’ premises, in different locations, with different bread-making processes. More information about the research can be found via the link towards the end of this page.
About salt
Bread is an important part of the diet and a good source of nutrients and fibre – but, because we eat it so frequently, it is also the single biggest contributor of salt to our diet.
High salt diets result in high blood pressure, leading to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. So the Agency is working successfully with industry to reduce the levels of salt in 80 categories of food to help reduce people’s daily intake. We have set a voluntary salt reduction target for bread of 1g salt /100g final product by 2012.
People should aim to eat no more than 6g per day, less for children. More advice about salt can be found via the link below.
Related links
(pdf 150KB)