With the large amount of salt in our diets currently a cause for concern, Shoptalk discovers it in alarmingly high quantities ineveryday foods.

FIRST it was fat, then it was carbohydrates, now it's salt that's the villain in our diet. Salt is, of course, a great preservative. A little salt adds seasoning to a meal. But too much salt can lead to high blood pressure, which increases the chance of strokes and heart attacks.

The problem is that salt is subtle. We might use very little on our meals or in cooking but nearly everyone else does. Nearly all processed food contains salt, some of it very high amounts.

To make life more complicated, in the small print on the labels salt is often described as sodium. Pay attention now - the next bit's important:

0.4g of sodium = 1g of salt

2.4g of sodium = 6g of salt - the healthy daily limit for an adult.

But for children, the safe levels are much lower - 1g of salt (0.4g sodium) for a baby and 2g salt (0.8g sodium) for a child under six years old.

Check the labels. As a rough and ready rule, anything that is more than 0.5g of sodium per 100g of food is high for an adult and very high for a child. Under 0.1g per 100g is low.

But now that the dangers of too much salt are becoming better known, Macdonalds are cutting down on the salt they serve up. The Government has also told manufacturers that they must reduce the salt in their foods.

Until then, if you play Hunt the Salt on the supermarket shelves, you'll find plenty of it, and in some unexpected places.

DAIRYLEA LUNCHABLES

Described as "a good source of calcium", they are very high in salt - each pack contains a gram of sodium, 2.5 g of salt, which is more than the entire daily ration for a young child, and nearly half of that of an adult. We also think they taste pretty horrid.

DAIRLYLEA DUNKERS

0.6g sodium per 100g. 0.75g salt in one pot.

DAIRYLEA THICK SLICES

2.5g of salt in 100g, which is four slices.

CRISPS

Seabrooks Salt and Vinegar had 0.7g sodium per 100g. If you eat just one small packet, you get the equivalent of 0.5g, probably fair enough in a balanced diet.

Walkers were much saltier - 1.2g sodium per 100g, with a whole gram of salt in each packet.

HEINZ WINNIE THE POOH PASTA SHAPES

0.3g sodium per 100g - that's 1.5g of salt in a small tin, almost a day's ration for a toddler. Still, they're better than...

HP BOB THE BUILDER PASTA SHAPES

0.5g sodium per 100g, which is 2.7g of salt in one small tin. That's nearly half the adult ration, never mind for a small child.

HEINZ TOMATO SOUP

0.4g sodium per 100g - that's 3 grams of salt in one small can.

POT NOODLE

0.5g sodium per 100g - that's 4 grams of salt in one pot. More than the daily ration for a ten-year-old and two thirds of adults' healthy limits. Oh, and they describe themselves as "gorgeous grub" on the pack.

SAFEWAY WAFER THIN HAM

2.5g salt per 100g

READY MEALS

You pay for convenience. Not just in money but, eventually, in soaring blood pressure. Most ready meals contain a lot of salt. It would be very easy to eat an entire day's ration of salt in one meal - and that's without pudding, breakfast, a sandwich at lunchtime or a packet of crisps in the pub.

TESCO CUMBERLAND PIE

4.2g of salt per serving.

SAINSBURY'S FISH PIE

3.9g salt per serving.

TESCO ABERDEEN ANGUS PIE

3.0g salt per serving.

ASDA POTATO MASH

1.5g per serving.

SAFEWAY SPRING ONION MASH

1.9g per serving.

SAFEWAY SEARED CHICKEN

3.5g per serving.

Interesting that when we tested ready meals recently, we were overcome by terrible thirst. When you look at that lot, it's not surprising really, is it? And if you allow your children unlimited fizzy drinks or squash when they're thirsty then you're probably going to make them fat and rot their teeth as well as giving them high blood pressure.

MORAL OF THIS STORY

Ideally, cook more of your own food so you know just what's going into it. Failing that, READ THE LABELS. Anything with more than 0.5g of sodium per 100g of food is going to be high in salt, so needs to be balanced out.

PS

I used to be a salt addict - loved salty cheese, salty butter and put small mountains of salt on everything. Then I cut it all out, just like that. I haven't missed it at all. Neither will you. And your children certainly won't.