Smith slammed for 'salty' recipes

Delia Smith has been criticised for having too much salt in her recipes.

Food campaigners have accused the celebrity chef of potentially putting people's lives at risk with the meal suggestions in her TV series and book.

Smith recommends time-saving short cuts such as using frozen mashed potato in BBC Two show How To Cheat At Cooking. Many of these ready-made foods are already rich in salt before extra seasoning is added while cooking.

Watchdog Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) said each serving of her 'carbonara real quick' contained more than 7g of salt, one more than the recommended maximum intake for a day.

Cash head Graham MacGregor, who is professor of cardiovascular medicine at St George's Hospital in London, said many heart attacks and strokes can be prevented by reducing the amount of salt in people's diets.

He said: "Delia Smith is very respected by the public and has great influence over what we cook. It is a real pity that she seems to be unaware of the dangers of eating too much salt, and furthermore it seems as if these latest recipes have not been checked for their salt content."

A spokeswoman for the BBC said: "Delia does a lot of food research when developing her recipes and, through the series, explains to viewers about what to look for in a ready-made product in terms of its quality, how it's been prepared and its taste."