At least six borough councils in the United Kingdom have taken part in an effort to lower the sodium intake of their constituents by reducing the number of holes in salt shakers from the traditional 17 to 5.
There must not be anything wrong with the roads or public buildings in these areas that the money from this program could have been spent on.
Gateshead Council spearheaded the project by commissioning a private company to produce 1,000 5-holed shakers costing roughly 2,000 pounds, or 4,000 US dollars. 4 dollars per salt shaker seems a bit expensive.
The council then distributed the shakers to every fish and chips joint in the area at no cost to the owners. Well, except their tax dollars and the tax dollars of all of the denizens of the borough.
But alas, the six mighty councils had good reasoning behind this action. Gateshead Council had spent 15 days researching the salt content in fish and chips leading them to the stunning conclusion.
According to
DailyMail:
Officers collected information from businesses, obtained samples of fish and chips, measured salt content and ‘carried out experiments to determine how the problem of excessive salt being dispensed could be overcome by design’.
They decided that the five-hole pots would reduce the amount of salt being used by more than 60 per cent yet give a ‘visually acceptable sprinkling’ that would satisfy the customer.
The idea here is that people are not smart enough to realize that they are now putting less salt on their food. Or maybe the thought is that people will be too lazy to shake the salt shaker a few more times even if they do realize they are getting less salt.
Either way, the councils believe that the multi-thousand dollar project will help reduce the rate of heart disease in the country.
On the other hand, it could possibly be another huge waste of money on a pork barrel project from an overreaching government. I wonder if anyone in the Gateshead Council has a friend or relative at Drywite Ltd, the company being paid to produce the salt shakers.
Participation is voluntary for now, but what restaurant is going to pass up free salt shakers?
