POPCORN at East Lancashire's cinemas contain nearly 30 teaspoons of sugar - more than three cans of cola.

Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH) today revealed cinema popcorn contains nearly the maximum daily recommended intake of salt for an adult - the equivalent of two McDonald's Big Macs and fries with nearly the same amount of calories.

The worst offenders were popcorns sold by cinema chains, with Cineworld, which has a branch in Bolton, selling a large salted popcorn containing 5.1g, Empire Cinemas, which has a cinema in Wigan, offering popcorn with 3.7g of salt per pack and My Vue, which has branches in Accrington and Blackburn, sell large salted popcorn with 3.1g of salt per pack.

Cineworld popcorn was also found to be the worst when it came to high levels of sugar, with its toffee popcorn containing 121g of sugar per 200g pack, equivalent to 30 teaspoons of sugar.

CASH nutritionist Sonia Pombo said: "Popcorn has reinvented itself as a healthy and flavoursome snack but not all brands are delivering on this - with certain products containing dangerously high levels of salt and sugars."

Graham MacGregor, CASH chairman, added: "This is a perfect example of the food industry taking something that is good for health and ruining it by adding large amounts of salt and sugar.

"Salt puts up our blood pressure, leading to strokes and heart disease. Reducing salt is one of the most cost-effective measures to reduce the number of people suffering and dying; the food industry needs to act now."