'New York Soup Co.' soup - can you find a saltier soup?
Discussion
We tend to avoid giving Tesco any of our money, but the OH had to go there yesterday to get something none of the other shops near us stock and she unwittingly picked up a tub of 'New York Soup Co.' corn chowder soup.
New York Soup Co. describe their range as a "delicious range of soups inspired by the delis and soup bars of the famous Big Apple". In fact, they are one of Tesco's own brands.
So today I'm feeling peckish and with not much else to eat in the fridge, I give it a go.
My soup tasting went a bit like this:










One spoonful was quite enough, thank you Mr Tesco. Oh, er, I mean Mr 'New York Soup Co.'
This soup contains 4.0g of salt per 600ml tub. It is inedible (and I really like salt!). I cannot believe, when they were making it, that someone would have thought that soup tasted nice.
Do you know of a soup with more salt? If so, I'm interested to hear if it actually tastes OK.
I shall be reminding the OH that Tesco is an evil place and she should not set foot in there ever, ever again.
New York Soup Co. describe their range as a "delicious range of soups inspired by the delis and soup bars of the famous Big Apple". In fact, they are one of Tesco's own brands.
So today I'm feeling peckish and with not much else to eat in the fridge, I give it a go.
My soup tasting went a bit like this:











One spoonful was quite enough, thank you Mr Tesco. Oh, er, I mean Mr 'New York Soup Co.'

This soup contains 4.0g of salt per 600ml tub. It is inedible (and I really like salt!). I cannot believe, when they were making it, that someone would have thought that soup tasted nice.
Do you know of a soup with more salt? If so, I'm interested to hear if it actually tastes OK.
I shall be reminding the OH that Tesco is an evil place and she should not set foot in there ever, ever again.
^^^ Huh?
How can the 'salt equivalent' equate to more than the amount of sodium?
Unless... 'sodium' refers to the amount of added salt, and 'salt equivalent' includes the sodium naturally contained by the soup ingredients, perhaps?
If so, doubly damning if the 'salt' in the OPs soup is added.
How can the 'salt equivalent' equate to more than the amount of sodium?
Unless... 'sodium' refers to the amount of added salt, and 'salt equivalent' includes the sodium naturally contained by the soup ingredients, perhaps?
If so, doubly damning if the 'salt' in the OPs soup is added.
Mobile Chicane said:
How can the 'salt equivalent' equate to more than the amount of sodium?
Added salt would be included in this, and would be identified on the ingredient declaration.
HTH
Mobile Chicane said:
^^^ Huh?
How can the 'salt equivalent' equate to more than the amount of sodium?
Unless... 'sodium' refers to the amount of added salt, and 'salt equivalent' includes the sodium naturally contained by the soup ingredients, perhaps?
If so, doubly damning if the 'salt' in the OPs soup is added.
There's 0.6 g of salt, of which 0.2 g is sodium, 0.4 g chloride. How can the 'salt equivalent' equate to more than the amount of sodium?
Unless... 'sodium' refers to the amount of added salt, and 'salt equivalent' includes the sodium naturally contained by the soup ingredients, perhaps?
If so, doubly damning if the 'salt' in the OPs soup is added.
Saul Goode said:
Mobile Chicane said:
How can the 'salt equivalent' equate to more than the amount of sodium?
Added salt would be included in this, and would be identified on the ingredient declaration.
HTH
Is it universal? Your multiplier applied to the sodium values on the tomato soup label quoted above, means that 0.2g of sodium equates to 0.51g equivalent salt - yet the tomato soup label states the equivalent salt value as 0.6g.
Sorry to be a nit-picker, however (given the gubberments health campaigns claiming Salt = The Bogeyman), I think the public need greater transparency on this issue.
Incidentally, who do you work for? Are you perhaps under-claiming the salt levels in your products?

Edited by Mobile Chicane on Monday 24th October 00:04
DoctorX said:
There's 0.6 g of salt, of which 0.2 g is sodium, 0.4 g chloride.
Not quite, you need to compare atomic weights: Na: 22.9
Cl: 35.5
http://www.ptable.com/
Mobile Chicane said:
Where does the multiplier of 2.54 come from? (Sorry, I've forgotten all of my A-Level chemistry.)
Salt is NaCl, i.e. half the salt is sodium atoms and half is chlorine. From the link above the relative atomic masses are 23.0 for sodium (simpo misrounded it; it's given as 22.989 which rounds to 23.0) and 35.5 for chlorine.The relative molecular mass for salt is then 23.0 + 35.5 = 58.5. If you divide the mass of sodium by the mass of salt you get 23.0/58.5 = 2.54.
Hence the 2.54 multiplier.
Mobile Chicane said:
Your multiplier applied to the sodium values on the tomato soup label quoted above, means that 0.2g of sodium equates to 0.51g equivalent salt - yet the tomato soup label states the equivalent salt value as 0.6g.
0.2 is rounded to the nearest single decimal place, in this case the figure will be around 0.23 as when it is multiplied by 2.54 you get 0.58 which is then rounded to 0.6.I have worked for a number of food manufacturers within Yorkshire, and salt figures are high on the agenda. The guidelines for salt reduction are quite strict, and a reduction is demanded by most of the retailers.
Currently in the cake making business, and even they struggle to keep sodium content down due to baking powder etc.
hidetheelephants said:
Write/phone and complain; they'll probably give you a voucher, although that's of limited use if Tesco are not to your taste.
Ha Ha, voucher ? i have been trying to stop TESCO'S Ireland sending me unsolicited emails on 4 seperate occaisions and quess what i'm getting them again,no proper apology,no vouchers,they have the cheek to keep telling me i have signed up with them for e mails which i haven't.....GrrrrrrThere's an initiative the Dept of Health have - "Public Health Responsibility Deal" which contains a load of woolly, badly-defined, ambiguous statements like this one:
http://responsibilitydeal.dh.gov.uk/f2-salt-reduct...
"We commit to the salt targets for the end of 2012 agreed by the Responsibility Deal, which collectively will deliver a further 15% reduction on 2010 targets. For some products this will require acceptable technical solutions which we are working to achieve. These targets will give a total salt reduction of nearly 1g per person per day compared to 2007 levels in food. We recognise that achieving the public health goal of consuming no more than 6g of salt per person per day will necessitate action across the whole industry, Government, NGOs and individuals."
Tesco have signed up to this "salt reduction pledge" but still feel the need to release a line of very mediocre soups which are saltier than an anchovy's armpit. All I can think is that the soup tasted of absolutely nothing, so they had to dump a bucket of salt in it to make it taste of something (in this case, salt).
Still, it's good for killing slugs.
http://responsibilitydeal.dh.gov.uk/f2-salt-reduct...
"We commit to the salt targets for the end of 2012 agreed by the Responsibility Deal, which collectively will deliver a further 15% reduction on 2010 targets. For some products this will require acceptable technical solutions which we are working to achieve. These targets will give a total salt reduction of nearly 1g per person per day compared to 2007 levels in food. We recognise that achieving the public health goal of consuming no more than 6g of salt per person per day will necessitate action across the whole industry, Government, NGOs and individuals."
Tesco have signed up to this "salt reduction pledge" but still feel the need to release a line of very mediocre soups which are saltier than an anchovy's armpit. All I can think is that the soup tasted of absolutely nothing, so they had to dump a bucket of salt in it to make it taste of something (in this case, salt).
Still, it's good for killing slugs.
Gassing Station | Food, Drink & Restaurants | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff



