Bread does not taste salty, which is why it is one of the biggest sources of salt in most diets. Two slices of an ordinary loaf carry as much salt as a small bag of crisps. The figure is printed on every pack, but "low salt" claims are rare and easy to misread, so we went through our database and read the labels ourselves.
We took every bread, pitta, wrap and tortilla in our data with a salt figure and a brand name, 135 products in all, and lined them up by salt per 100 g. The sample leans towards wraps and tortillas, because they are scanned more often than sliced loaves, and it mixes UK, French, US and Australian packs, so treat the numbers as a picture of the category rather than of any one shelf.
What the labels say
| Measure | Salt per 100 g |
|---|---|
| Lowest | 0.16 g |
| Lower quartile | 0.80 g |
| Median | 1.00 g |
| Upper quartile | 1.25 g |
| Highest | 2.52 g |
Half of all breads in the sample sit between 0.8 and 1.25 g per 100 g. That is a narrow band, and it means most loaves are more alike than their marketing suggests.
What "low salt" legally means
In the EU and the UK a product may only say "low salt" or "low sodium" if it contains no more than 0.12 g of sodium per 100 g, which is 0.3 g of salt. "Very low" requires 0.04 g of sodium. "Reduced salt" requires at least 25 percent less than a comparable product, which is a relative claim and says nothing about the absolute level.
Against the 0.3 g line, exactly one product in our 135 qualifies: Waitrose Wholemeal Pitta at 0.16 g per 100 g, with an ingredient list of wholemeal wheat flour, water, yeast, salt and a preservative. It does not carry a low salt claim on the pack in our data. In fact none of the 135 products carry any salt-related claim at all. The claim is legally available, and almost nobody in the bread aisle can use it.
The UK traffic light on bread
The Food Standards Agency colours salt red at 1.5 g or more per 100 g and green at 0.3 g or less. On our sample:
- Green (0.3 g or less): 1 product.
- Amber (between 0.3 and 1.5 g): 120 products.
- Red (1.5 g or more): 14 products.
Almost the whole aisle is amber. That is the honest answer to "is this bread high in salt": usually neither high nor low by the label rules, but consistently around 1 g, and it adds up because bread is eaten daily.
Low end: what gets a loaf under 0.6 g
- Waitrose Wholemeal Pitta: 0.16 g.
- Ortega Whole Wheat Tortillas: 0.35 g.
- Soreen Sliced Malt Loaf: 0.50 g. Malt loaf is sweet rather than salty, and the label reads accordingly.
- Rebel Bakehouse Hemp Seed Wraps: 0.57 g.
- Asda Extra Special Wholemeal Multigrain Sliced Loaf: 0.61 g, the lowest sliced loaf in the sample.
The middle: what most bread looks like
- Jason's Proper Sourdough: 0.79 g.
- Mission Tortilla Rounds: 0.80 g.
- Asda Extra Special Mixed Seed Sourdough: 0.83 g.
- Coles Soft White Toast Loaf: 0.95 g.
- Warburtons Sliced Thin White Bread Rolls: 0.96 g.
- Old El Paso 8 Tortillas: 1.00 g.
- Wonder 100% Whole Wheat Thin Sandwich Bread: 1.03 g.
Sourdough, white, wholemeal, wrap: the salt figure barely moves. Salt is there for the dough, not the flavour, and bakers use about the same amount whatever the flour.
High end: the top of the table
Fourteen products sit at 1.5 g or above, the red band. These are the ones with a brand name and a readable label:
- Old El Paso Flour Tortillas for Tacos & Fajitas: 1.47 g, just under the line.
- Simple Truth Organic Thin Sliced 100% Whole Wheat Bread: 1.77 g. Organic and wholegrain, and the highest sliced loaf in the sample.
- Acapulco 6 Tortilla Nature: 1.80 g.
- Old El Paso White Corn Tortillas: 2.52 g, the top of the table. Corn masa, water, stabilisers, salt and an emulsifier.
Gluten-free and corn products lean high. Without gluten, salt and gums do more of the structural work, and several gluten-free wraps in the sample sit between 1.2 and 1.4 g.
Per slice, per day
A slice of a standard sliced loaf weighs about 40 g. At the median 1.0 g per 100 g, that is 0.4 g of salt per slice and 0.8 g for a sandwich, before any filling. The reference intake printed on UK and EU labels is 6 g of salt a day, so a sandwich's worth of bread is about 13 percent of it. At 1.77 g per 100 g the same sandwich is 1.4 g, close to a quarter. The difference between the low and high end of the aisle is real, but the difference between two loaves in the middle is a rounding error.
What to do with this in the shop
- Read the per-100 g salt figure, not the per-slice one. Slice weights vary and thin-sliced loaves look better than they are.
- Anything at 0.8 g or below is in the best quarter of the aisle. Anything at 1.5 g or above is in the red.
- Do not expect a "low salt" claim. Only a product at 0.3 g or less can carry one, and in our data that is pittas, not loaves.
- Sourdough, wholemeal and seeded do not mean lower salt. Check the number.
Every product above links to its page, which shows the full nutrition table next to the ingredient list. Bread is also where a few unexpected ingredients turn up for other diets, which is why we cover the amino acid L-cysteine (E920) and the emulsifier E471 on their own pages, and why the vegan check reads bread labels more closely than most people expect.
FAQ
What counts as low salt bread?
Legally, 0.3 g of salt or less per 100 g. In our sample of 135 breads, pittas and wraps, one product meets that: Waitrose Wholemeal Pitta at 0.16 g. Everything else is above the line, and most loaves are around 1 g.
Is sourdough lower in salt?
Not in our data. Jason's Proper Sourdough reads 0.79 g and Asda's mixed seed sourdough 0.83 g, both in the middle of the range. Sourdough describes the fermentation, not the salt.
Are wraps and tortillas saltier than sliced bread?
Slightly, on average, and the highest figures in our sample are all tortillas: 1.80 g and 2.52 g per 100 g. Corn and gluten-free tortillas run higher than wheat ones.
Why does salt matter more in bread than in crisps?
Because of quantity. Crisps read 1 to 2 g per 100 g, in the same range as bread, but a bag is 25 to 30 g and a sandwich uses 80 g of bread, every day. The per-100 g figure is similar; the amount eaten is not.