Sodium and salt

Salt is also called sodium chloride. It's the sodium in salt that can be bad for your health.

Sodium is usually listed in the nutritional information on food labels. Salt is also listed on some foods, but not all.

Salt = sodium x 2.5

If you know how much sodium is in a food, you can work out roughly the amount of salt it contains by multiplying the sodium by 2.5. So if a portion of food contains 1.2g sodium then it contains about 3g salt.

Sodium converter

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

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

If you want to do this calculation for a child, click on the appropriate age group before pressing 'calculate'.

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.