Basil pesto has come under fire in England for being too salty. Not because of the euro-sterling exchange rate or Brexit, but because of excessive sodium chloride content. Clarity is appropriate.
Salty pesto in the UK?
Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH), at Queen Mary’s University of London, has launched a statement (1) to denounce how Saclà pesto, a leading Italian brand in the land of Albion, has increased the salt in its recipe, which now contains 3.3 percent of it.
The occasion was worthwhile to ask Public Health England (PHE) for a more stringent approach to the food industry. In order to ensure the effective achievement of annual targets-shared in the UK at public and private levels-on the reduction of salt in food (2017 Salt Reduction Targets).
Of all the grass, the British organization examined only seven basil pesto (2) packages to rank them based on their respective salt contents. An unrepresentative sample of basil pesto production was worth denigrating the entire category of typical Genoa, Liguria, Made in Italy condiments.
The British press, however, followed up the news widely, with just as much superficiality. (3)
Reactions, from Italy and Liguria
Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina reacted to The Guardian article with a tweet, in Italian unfortunately, denouncing the fake news.
Instead, Liguria Regional Governor Giovanni Toti moved from words to deeds, accompanying his tweet with the physical shipment of a basket. Jars of authentic Genoese pesto, where fine ingredients stand out over table salt.
Brief advice to consumers
The writer has the good fortune to have been born and raised in Genoa, with a grandmother who pounded Genoese basil at km0, from the hamlet of Prà.(4) Along with extra virgin olive oil, Parmigiano Reggiano and Sardinian pecorino cheese, pine nuts, and garlic. (5) Coarse sea salt, at the bottom of the marble mortar handed down from mother to daughter, had the essential function of physical support for the wooden pestle to better grind the ingredients. By hand, with ‘elbow grease’.
Genovese pesto is not a cream to spread on canapés; it is not consumed as is. It is therefore improper and indeed blasphemous to make the comparison ventured by CASH, between ‘a 47.5 g portion of pesto’ and a McDonald’s hamburger. Instead, it is a pasta sauce, sometimes used to flavor vegetable soup, in modern times-at most-on a cheese flatbread.
One taste is enough to detect whether the ingredients intended to season the pasta are more or less savory. This is always the case with anchovies in oil and aged cheeses. It can also happen with pesto, which according to tradition also contains them. In such cases, all that is done is to add less salt to the pasta cooking water. Or more generally, to other ingredients. The egg of Columbus!
Reflections for those in the supply chain
The use of salt in Genovese pesto-as well as in Parma ham from beyond the Apennines-fulfills the need to preserve the product naturally, without the addition of chemical additives.
The need to reduce salt in the diet is nonetheless a categorical imperative in this day and age. Excess salt causes cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. It is therefore understandable that the quality of our products is also measured in this respect, especially in countries where food culture is more rarefied.
Many well-known brands exceed the voluntary target of 1.38 g per 100 g, set by Public Health England as a healthy salt content.
(Daily Mail)
Therefore, it is worth investing in innovation, ‘Gaining Health. With the aim, among others, of reducing the sodium content of food, and therefore without resorting to the use of additives. (6)
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) http://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/news/surveys/2017/Pesto/index.html
(2) The brands considered are Saclà, Napolina, Gino d’Acampo, Jamie Oliver, Truly Italian Genovese Basil Pesto, Aldi, Sainsbury’s
(3) See BBC http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41493440, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/04/pesto-sauces-far-too-much-salt-cash-study. Instead, Daily Mail extended the search to other products on the shelf in the UK, at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4949736/How-salty-pesto.html
(4) A cultivar of small-leaf basil, now recognized as Genovese basil PDO. See http://www.basilicogenove se.it/basilico.php?id=pesto
(5) The authentic recipe-even a modern version using a blender instead of a mortar-can be found at http://www.basilicogenovese.it/basilico.php?id=argomenti_scheda&arg=3. More details and insights at https://www.mangiareinliguria.it/consorziopestogenovese/pestogenovese-faq.php and at https://www.mangiareinliguria.it/consorziopestogenovese/pestogenovese.php
(6) Some of the solutions adopted to promote the preservation of Genoese pesto include packaging in a protective atmosphere (e.g., Rana)
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
