Pizza Pizza Salt Lick Relief - Is It Enough?

Following up on my recent post Canadians Consume Piles of Salt, Canada's fast food chain, Pizza Pizza announced August 4th it has introduced a whole wheat multi grain crust with 25% less sodium than its original “classic” crust. Customers can also request a thinner crust which will further reduce sodium intake. Pizza Pizza has achieved the lower salt content by reformulating the ingredients.

The Pizza Pizza Nutritional Information shows that a single walk-in slice of pepperoni pizza (277 gram serving) contains 1710 mgs of sodium. However it's not clear if this is the updated information with the reduced sodium content. A Globe and Mail article dated August 5th states that "A walk-in slice of classic pepperoni pizza (286-gram serving) contains 1,630 milligrams of sodium."

The introduction by Pizza Pizza of the new lower sodium crust is good news. Does it go far enough? Probably not. But it is important to recognize that a company like Pizza Pizza is giving consumers some lower sodium choices. Hopefully they will continue the reformulation process with other items on the Pizza Pizza menu. The company also added a gluten-free crust to the menu in June 2008.

Health Canada recommends a daily intake of 2100 mgs of sodium or approximately one tablespoon of salt. The Canadian Stroke Network, the Canadian Obesity Network and the Advanced Foods and Materials Network awarded the second annual national Salt Lick Award in February 2009 to the country’s pizza producers for loading the popular fast food with blood pressure raising sodium.

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