[Sodium chloride in food rations and dinners in mass catering institutions]

The sodium chloride content in meals given by mass catering institution in all over country in 1988-1998 years was estimated. This study included daily food rations from 183 mass catering institution as hospitals, sanatoriums for both children and adults, boarding schools, infant schools and social welfare homes. We assessed also school dinners from 422 randomized selected schools and dinners from 55 internal and 56 surgical departments of provincial and regional hospitals in Poland. The mass of each meal was evaluated and sodium chloride content by Mohr's method was assessed. In most cases the salt content by 100 g of meal of 1000 kcal was calculated. The dinners and daily food rations analyze showed that sodium chloride content in meals was much higher than value recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). Salt amount in daily food rations of both children and adults was above 16 g. This value didn't include salt added to meals by boarders. School dinners provided about 7-10 g of salt. The average sodium chloride content in hospital dinners was about 16-20 g. In each studied group the NaCl content per 100 g of meal was similarly high and was 0.7-0.9 g. The results of this study show that meals given by mass catering institutions can increase risk of hypertension, strokes and gastric cancers because of high sodium chloride content.