The NaC-hell Retailer Award 2008

I'm going to make this an annual award - this year's focuses on the major UK retailers/supermarkets. I did a survey, to see which is the best place to shop for a low sodium diet. I got in touch with them all at the beginning of December, via email (except for Morrisons, for whom I used snail mail as there was no email address available).

	Please could you provide a listing of low sodium products?	Do you have a reduced sodium own brand ready meal range?	Do you have an initiative to reduce sodium in your products?	Do you have clear labelling?
Tesco	No response	Yes - Healthy Living	No response	No response
Asda	No	Yes	No	Yes
Sainsbury's	No	Yes, Super Naturals	Yes	Yes
Morrisons	No	No	No response	Yes
M&S	Yes	Yes - Eat Well	Yes	Yes
Waitrose	Yes	Yes - Perfectly Balanced	Yes	Yes

I must admit I was a little disappointed not to receive a response from Tesco, as the biggest retailer here. They do however have a decent website, and an online nutritionist. See here for their guidance on salt, and product labelling.

Asda also have a good website. See here for their guidance on salt and product labelling.

Sainsbury's tell me that they were at the forefront of the push for better product labelling. See here for their guidance on salt and labelling.

Morrisons have a page on "switching the salt" on their website.

Marks and Spencer and Waitrose get points for being the only two retailers to send me a listing of low sodium products. Waitrose sent me a huge list of everything that they sell that is low in sodium in the post. Marks and Spencer sent me a listing on a spreadsheet via email - I must say their nutritionist was very helpful, and having the list in Excel is fantastic, as it means I can sort on the sodium content column, to find the lowest.

Waitrose's guidance on salt and labelling are here.

See here for M&S' guidance on salt and labelling. They seem to be taking salt reduction seriously, and have made it part of their "Plan A" campaign. And for that, M&S are the winner of the NaC-Hell Retailer Award for 2008!