[A survey on the sodium content of customers' orderings at three restaurants in Beijing]

To survey the mean sodium content of menu offering and customers' orderings on sodium when eating out.

All weights of ingredients of menu offerings at three Chinese restaurants with Wenzhou, Shandong, and Yunnan cuisine, in Beijing, were collected and their sodium values were estimated based on data from the Chinese Food Composition. All records from customers' orders were collected in a certain period of time from year 2011 to 2013. The mean sodium content of ordering per person and the proportion of all orders exceeding the recommended daily sodium limit that applicable to most native Chinese, were estimated.

Of all the menu offerings, hot dishes (1 728.6 mg; P25, P75: 1 198.7, 2 482.8) and soup dishes (2 101.5 mg; P25, P75: 1 467.8, 2 291.2) had the highest sodium contents, followed by cold dressed dishes (790.7 mg; P25, P75: 128.1, 1 472.9) staple foods (802.9 mg; P25, P75: 115.1, 1 563.2) while the beverages having the lowest sodium contents (17.0 mg; P25, P 75: 2.0, 19.5) (P < 0.05). Meat dishes (1 796.3 mg; P25, P75: 1 303.9, 2 670.3) contained more sodium than vegetable dishes (1 105.5 mg; P25, P75: 423.6, 1 628.6) (P < 0.001). The median sodium contents in per person orderings were 2 325.6 mg (P25, P75:1 700.7, 3 213.8) for lunch and 2 542.5 mg (P25, P75: 1 857.5, 3 498.1) for dinner. Current dietary guideline recommended for Chinese adults was: in general, the amount of consumption should not exceed 2 400 mg of sodium per day. Based on the recommended optimal daily calories intake ratio as 3:4:3 for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we would suggest that the sodium intake should follow the amount as 960 mg for lunch and 720 mg for dinner. Our data indicated that 97.5% of the ordered meals appeared that they were over the recommended sodium limit and 76.5% of the tables showed two times more than the limit of recommendation.

Soup and hot dishes provided at these three restaurants contained more sodium contents. People ordered dishes at restaurants would contain more sodium than the recommended Chinese daily sodium intake.