Foods containing unnecessary and unhealthy amounts of salt are named and shamed today as Britain's shoppers are urged to boycott potentially dangerous processed foods.

The worst offenders include staple items such as bread, crumpets and cereals as well as the popular meat snack Peperami Sticks, which have about 4g of salt per 100g.

Consumers are being advised to go for widely available lower-salt alternatives, which are much better for their health, says a national campaign group.

At the beginning of national "salt awareness week", the group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash), claims that many products are still too salty, despite progress made by the food industry.

It says that, given that lower-salt alternatives exist for nearly all categories of foods, consumers should boycott the potentially dangerous products that still have large amounts of salt added.

Cash's latest analysis of 127 goods "named and shamed" in 2004 for being too salty shows that manufacturers have reduced the salt content of 66% of items. But it remains concerned about many products with a high salt content, and has produced a further list of products to avoid - along with alternatives from different manufacturers which are more healthy. Eating too much salt can lead to high blood pressure, which in turn is linked to increased risks of strokes and heart attacks. The research shows that for every single gram a day cut from the average intake in the UK population, 7,000 deaths from strokes and heart attacks would be prevented. Many loaves of bread and crumpets are particularly high in salt, Cash says. It advises buyers not to buy bread containing more than 1.25g of salt per 100g because alternatives exist.

The campaign group's chairman, Professor Graham MacGregor, singled out Birds Eye, New Covent Garden Soups, Heinz and supermarket chains for their progress in making reductions in salt.

"This proves that lower-salt versions can be developed, and we must now support the lower-salt products and vote with our feet when it comes to the ones that have not been reformulated or still contain unnecessarily high amounts," he said.

He pointed out that most cornflakes in the UK now have around two-thirds the amount of salt they contained in 2004 and Quaker Oats has reformulated its Oat Krunchies into Oat Crisp with only a quarter of their previous salt content. However, among the products with high levels of salt is a Sainsbury's product - Oat and Bran Flakes - with 2.4g of salt per 100g, compared with 2.5g of salt per 100g in Atlantic salt water.

Another product highlighted by Cash as having a high salt content is Unilever Peperami Sticks. But Unilever said it had given the product a new formula and that from today sticks with a content cut to 3.6g per 100g would be available to retailers.

A company spokesman said: "Unilever is committed to its salt reduction programme and has further plans to reduce levels as part of this initiative."

The Association of Cereal Food Manufacturers says the big manufacturers have cut the salt content of cereals by an average of 38% between 1998 and 2006, to an average 0.36g per 100g. The Food Standards Agency says that adults should eat no more than 6g of salt a day, but consumers eat on average about 9.5g.