The aim of the project is to reduce the level of salt used in social cooking and ultimately the levels used at home in South Asian families of Indian descent.
The 'Social Cooking' project was undertaken in 15 places of worship around the UK, including the Hindu temple in Neasden, north-west London (picture above).
There are two levels of intervention: one working with the cooks, and the second working with the congregations whom they serve. This project has also involved working with the managements of the relevant places-of-worship and that work has yielded its own outcomes in terms of the relationships built which can be used for future projects.
The project has involved
assessing the quantities of salt (and fat) currently used in social cooking and
showing cooks how the levels used can be reduced. The dietitians have then managed the reduction of salt
usage over a six-month period at each intervention site (place of worship), via
monitoring and advising cooks.
We built on this work by raising awareness amongst congregation members at each place of worship about the impact of high salt consumption and how the meals that they received had been made healthier without compromising on taste. The dieticians delivered cooking workshops, information sessions, discussion groups and tasting sessions to congregations. This work empowered congregation members to reduce the quantities of salt that they were using at home.
At the start of the project it was difficult to quantify our objectives, although the available evidence suggested that salt consumption was high, none of the studies of salt use in South Asian communities had indicated how much salt is actually being used.
