Battle of the Sexes

 In your case, Les, you might pushing it a bit! (I'm not that old )

true- but you'll find a lot Maccy D franchises are now following head office policy to not add additional salt from the saltshaker onto the freshly fried chips. 

This whole 'low salt' thing is a real joke, the salt harvesters and distributors are absolutely laughing... government pressure, (if you can call it 'pressure' rather than just whimsical nanny-state clap trap) have given supermarkets with another tool for 'healthy' marketing campaigns- as a result of supermarket commercial power, salt has been reduced in food manufactutring recipes; great! job done- we're all the more healthier as a result....

Except, research has actually found that salt is being added back in at consumer level directly at the table either from retail salt packs in your home or from little sachets in food service outlets- good news for ingredients people- salt sales are up in value-added packaging and down in bulk-commoditised packaging where the margins were sh*t.  Not to mention overall UK consumption of salt has actually increased over the past year as consumers are more liberal with their own dosage rates than a cost-concious food manufacturer!  

Of course, you won't see these statistics in the public domain, as I'm sure the Patricia Hewitt will release very positive info based on some soft statistically survey relating to 'healthiness and well-being'- but I'd rather take the improved sales figures of my food industry couterparts who are selling more salt than they ever used to, as genuine indication of British trends in salt consumption.

p.s. I don't sell salt, in fact I sell a far more expensive product for salt replication in higher end prepared foods if anyone's interested!!!