A recent study conducted by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) holds packaged and processed foods as the main culprits behind the Americans’ consuming salt in excess of the daily recommended allowance. Almost 80% of the excessive salt intake was attributed to packaged grocery store food.

The CDC stated that precisely 77% of the excessive salt consumption was due to restaurant meals, take-out food and other packaged foods which were all found to contain very highly laden with salt. Home cooked meals, with lesser amount of salt, were found to be the lesser devils.

This startling fact came to the fore while the CDC was investigating the main causes of high blood pressure. High salt intake has long been associated with high blood pressure and also many other health related complications because of which public health authorities have been promoting on cutting down its intake in packaged food products over the last few decades.

“Americans consume an average of 3,500 milligrams (mg) of sodium each day (excluding salt added at the table). But the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, recommend limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day. About six in 10 adults should further limit sodium to 1,500 mg a day,” states CDC in its official report.

The CDC was looking into the possible correlation of geographical location of an individual and chances of likelihood of him suffering from high blood pressure as a part of their effort to find out if the salt content in packaged foods differed based on the area in which they were sold.

The health agency could not find any links between high salt levels and the products manufactured in those areas with higher levels of hypertension than the national average from their present observations.

“Although most of the regional differences found did not have a clear direction or contributor, some may relate to regional variations in the popularity of specific types of products within a food category,” CDC said.

The worst offenders, according to the CDC, were pasta and meat. Both of these were found to contain extremely high levels of sodium, far overstepping the safe levels laid down by the federal body.