Table 1.

Comparison of sodium content in the USA and UK by bread type and by percentage meeting sodium reduction targets; data obtained from the US Label Insight Open Data Initiative (n 4466) in 2017 and the FoodSwitch UK database (n 1651) covering 2012–2016

	USA							UK
		Meeting target*		Na content (mg/100 g)					Meeting target*		Na content (mg/100 g)				P value†
Sub-category	N	n	%	Mean	sd	Median	Range	N	n	%	Mean	sd	Median	Range	t test	χ 2 test
All	4466	957	21	455	170	459	0–3219	1651	508	31	405	179	400	0–4900	<0·0001	<0·0001
Savoury bread	19	1	5	584	163	525	353–900	59	12	20	543	613	420	60–4900	0·6432	0·1251
Rye bread	186	18	10	557	193	558	18–1065	12	5	42	345	180	390	0–510	0·0003	0·0008
Flat bread	141	19	13	549	237	476	0–1556	125	36	29	479	241	400	0–1500	0·0172	0·0021
French and Italian bread	266	21	8	534	155	543	16–1129	19	4	21	392	34	390	340–450	<0·0001	0·0501
Naan	38	10	26	510	175	519	0–756	109	74	68	338	118	320	100–810	<0·0001	<0·0001
Specialty breads	199	24	12	494	148	494	0–1235	70	27	39	398	134	400	0–800	<0·0001	<0·0001
Garlic bread	43	4	9	484	130	509	8–706	107	20	19	417	66	400	300–600	0·0021	0·1561
Bread rolls	720	65	9	484	112	487	0–929	284	79	28	405	119	400	0–1400	<0·0001	<0·0001
White bread	317	34	11	471	99	478	0–900	172	17	10	421	89	400	0–840	<0·0001	0·7712
Wholemeal/wheat bread	523	86	16	445	119	446	0–1517	172	28	16	436	119	400	0–1000	0·3836	0·9597
Crumpets	3	1	33	437	113	430	327–553	27	4	15	462	127	480	210–840	0·7464	0·4142
Sweet bread	80	12	15	432	411	363	1–3219	75	6	8	366	102	380	0–700	0·1648	0·174
English muffins	132	34	26	427	154	392	14–1000	22	12	55	347	74	345	200–500	0·0003	0·0063
Bagels	366	88	24	423	121	421	57–929	41	20	49	367	137	370	0–600	0·0062	0·0007
Multigrain bread	380	129	34	398	115	395	0–960	87	18	21	396	96	400	10–810	0·8808	0·0163
Pita bread	101	40	40	383	174	411	0–1058	71	30	42	385	136	390	90–700	0·9259	0·7277
Pizza bases	76	35	46	381	223	399	53–954	28	11	39	459	194	405	200–980	0·1069	0·5377
Other grain bread	60	27	45	351	143	385	0–667	20	5	25	402	103	400	100–570	0·1523	0·1138
Fruit bread	162	101	62	345	143	341	2–988	103	91	88	277	136	250	80–1000	0·0002	<0·0001
Other bread	654	208	32	437	220	445	0–3069	48	9	19	421	94	400	230–600	0·3277	0·0589

^*Target is the US 2014 National Salt Reduction Initiative (NSRI) Na target of ≤360 mg/100 g, which is the same as the 2017 Department of Health Na target for the UK (NSRI target is ≤220 mg Na/100 g for sweet bread).

^† t Test for mean Na content per 100 g by country or χ ² test for proportion in target by country.