Choosing a sandwich

Recipe Ideas

The British Sandwich Association inspects sandwich manufacturers and retailers and only those achieving a high standard of food safety are accredited and allowed to use the BSA triangular logo. Always make sure that you buy sandwiches from reputable BSA accredited retailers and manufacturers. You can find details of retailers supporting the BSA safe standards on this website or by calling our helpline at 01291 636338. Most reputable retailers uphold the BSA standards and nowadays insist on suppliers, whether of ingredients or packaged sandwiches, being BSA accredited.

Oh What Now?

As we all know, the media love attacking anything that is a success – and as Britain’s most popular food the humble sandwich is no exception, so we thought we would put a few facts up in response to recent media headlines:

Salt – the sandwich industry has been working with the Food Standards Agency for some time now to reduce salt levels in sandwiches and some 90% of manufactured sandwiches already now meet the FSA’s 2010 guidelines. While the media like to castigate sandwiches for salt levels – often using small packs of crisps as a comparison – they usually forget to mention the comparative weights of the products. – you can read about salt in sandwiches by clicking here.

Fats – again a huge amount of work has been done to remove saturated and trans fats but it is not possible to remove them entirely as they exist in ingredients like cheese. However, contrary to some statements cheese sandwiches account for only 1 in 15 sandwiches and the most popular filling is chicken, which has little saturated fat in it - you can read about fat in sandwiches by clicking here

Labelling – All packaged sandwiches made in central kitchens or factories are fully labelled with ingredient information. They also have a ‘Use-by end of’ date code. Sandwich bars generally cannot provide the same detailed information because they do not have the ability to analyse it. Many do, however, provide nutritional information on their web sites and on request in their shops.

Top Sandwich Fillings – contrary to popular opinion the biggest selling sandwich filling is chicken. If you click here you can see the top ingredients used by the industry.