According to Jamie Oliver, his range of pasta sauces is "all about offering exciting flavours, using great quality ingredients at decent prices. I want to get people excited about having pasta and sauce, to really get their tastebuds going." Unfortunately, he has been heavy-handed in using one particular ingredient: salt.

Despite taking school caterers to task for dishing up the likes of Turkey Twizzlers on the grounds that they were bad for children's health, Oliver has been accused of using more salt in his tomato-based pasta sauces than any other range.

According to research published by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash), which examined the salt content of 190 jars, pots and packets of pasta, the highest salt product was in Jamie Oliver's olive and garlic sauce, with 3g per 100g, or 5.3g of salt per recommended 175g portion of sauce. That is equivalent to 88% of an adult's recommended limit of 6g of salt a day in just one serving and roughly the same as eating more than 10 packets of ready salted crisps.

His other tomato sauces also contained high amounts of salt, at 3g per portion of fiery tomato and chilli, 2.8g per portion of red onion and rosemary, and 2.6g per portion of tomato and basil.

Cash also criticised manufacturers for inconsistent labelling and portion sizes, making it difficult for consumers to work out which sauces were least salty.

"Salt puts up our blood pressure, which is the major risk factor for strokes, heart failure and heart disease," said Graham MacGregor, chairman of Cash. "It is shocking to see so many products still so poorly labelled and high in salt." He advised consumers to choose clearly labelled lower-salt pasta sauces or to make their own.

This is not the first time Oliver's sauces have been criticised for their salt content: Cash research showed that they contained exactly the same salt content last year.

A spokesman for Oliver said the chef's team had been working on a lower-salt recipe since the spring. "These are now in production and will be available for supermarkets to order in from early December. The new spicy olive, garlic & tomato sauce, for example, will have 0.8g of salt per 100g as opposed to 3g [currently]. All of the new pasta sauces will be within the FSA 2012 guidelines."

He claimed the sauces were designed to serve four to six people a jar, perhaps as a pizza topping or a pasta dressing, so the salt would be distributed more sparingly.

Oliver was not the only celebrity chef to fall foul of Cash: Loyd Grossman's tomato-based sauces also contained high levels of salt, at 1.5g per 100g of product in most cases, while his carbonara with pancetta sauce contained 1g of salt per 100g.

WeightWatchers had the two lowest-salt products in the survey: its roasted garlic pasta sauce contained just 0.1g of salt per 100g, while its napoletana sauce had 0.15g of salt per 100g. The lowest-salt carbonara sauce was Morrisons Eat Smart carbonara, with 0.3g per 100g.

Lows and highs

Highest salt content in tomato-based sauces per 100g

Jamie Oliver spicy olive, garlic and tomato: 3

Sainsbury's puttanesca: 2

Sainsbury's siciliana: 1.8

Jamie Oliver fiery tomato and chilli: 1.7

Jamie Oliver red onion & rosemary: 1.6

Lowest salt content in tomato-based sauces

Asda Good For You bolognese pasta sauce: 0.3

Sainsbury's spicy tomato sauce: 0.28

Co-operative arrabiata: 0.25

Weight Watchers napoletana: 0.15

Weight Watchers roasted garlic pasta sauce: 0.1

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