Trader Joe's salt, and bacon jerky

[mindstalk]

I've long noted that TJ processed foods seemed high in sodium, even compared to other such foods. Like the ramen that had 53% of your RDA in a serving. Tonight's sample stand had meatballs, which were just 18% per serving, and I snarked that was low for TJ. The employees agreed, we chatted about saltness, and she said that TJ foods don't have synthetic preservatives, so she thinks they add extra salt as a natural preservative. An interesting idea; I'd never noticed the lack of preservatives as a thing, but seems to be true. (Lack of "chemicals", not so much; some of the breads have an interesting list of "dough conditioners".)

I still object to an Italian loaf having 20% of your salt in 150 calories of bread.

I didn't get the meatballs; they were decently tasty, but I'd prefer to save my salt budget for awesome things, like smoked salmon, or this new product, bacon jerky. Sriracha bacon jerky. OMG, so decadent.