Low-Sodium Kimchi Brands (UK), Ranked — 11 Brands Audited by Sodium
We read the actual “Salt per 100g” figure straight off each brand’s own Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Ocado, Morrisons or brand-site nutrition panel — no third-party estimates — converted it to sodium, and ranked every UK brand we could confirm from lowest to highest.
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Which UK Kimchi Brand Has the Least Sodium?
Sun Hee Kimchi has the lowest confirmed sodium of any UK-sold brand we’ve checked — 380mg per 100g (0.95g salt), and it’s widely available at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons for around £2. Bibigo’s UK ambient pouch and Mrs Elswood Classic tie for second-lowest at 640mg per 100g. At the other end, Ajumma Republic is the highest-sodium brand we’ve confirmed, at 1,064mg per 100g — its traditional salted-anchovy-and-shrimp seasoning is the likely reason. Full ranked table and methodology below.
All 11 Confirmed UK Brands, Lowest to Highest Sodium
Sodium (mg per 100g) = Salt (g per 100g) × 400 — the standard UK food-labelling conversion. Every salt figure below is read directly from the brand’s own current UK retailer nutrition panel.
| Rank | Brand | Salt /100g | Sodium /100g | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun Hee Kimchi | 0.95g | 380mg | Tesco / Ocado |
| 2 | Bibigo Kimchi (UK ambient) | 1.6g | 640mg | Sainsbury’s / Ocado |
| 2 | Mrs Elswood Classic Kimchi | 1.6g | 640mg | Waitrose / McGrocer |
| 4 | Biona Organic Kimchi | 1.81g | 724mg | Tesco / Huntsfoodgroup |
| 5 | M&S Naturally Fermented Golden Kimchi | 1.83g | 732mg | marksandspencer.com |
| 6 | Baxters Kimchi (Crunchy & Chilli Pepper) | 1.92g | 768mg | Baxters.com / Tesco |
| 7 | Vadasz Raw Kimchi | 2.1g | 840mg | Tesco |
| 7 | Yutaka Korean Kimchi | 2.1g | 840mg | McGrocer |
| 9 | M&S Naturally Fermented Classic Kimchi | 2.13g | 852mg | marksandspencer.com |
| 10 | Mrs Elswood Turmeric Kimchi | 2.2g | 880mg | Ocado / McGrocer |
| 11 | Ajumma Republic Kimchi | 2.66g | 1,064mg | McGrocer.ae |
Ranks are shared where two brands round to the same salt figure. Figures can change if a brand reformulates — always check the current on-pack panel before relying on any single figure for a medically restricted diet.
Confirmed Brands, In Detail
Made by Surya Foods. Salt: 0.95g per 100g, confirmed on both its Tesco and Ocado nutrition panels. The lowest sodium of any UK brand we’ve checked this pass.
Salt: 1.6g per 100g, confirmed consistently across Sainsbury’s, Ocado and McGrocer listings. Made with a soy peptone starter instead of fish sauce — no salted-seafood seasoning to push the figure up.
Salt: 1.6g per 100g (McGrocer). Its Turmeric variant runs noticeably higher — 2.2g salt / 880mg sodium per 100g — so check which SKU you’re buying before assuming both are the same.
Salt: 1.81g per 100g, matching Tesco.ie, Huntsfoodgroup and Natural Grocery’s current listings. Two smaller retailers show older or possibly outdated figures (0.13g or 1.62g) with a different ingredient breakdown — flagged, not used.
Salt: 1.83g per 100g, direct from marksandspencer.com. The ginger-and-turmeric variant runs slightly lower sodium than M&S’s own Classic Kimchi.
Salt: 1.92g per 100g — this exact figure is confirmed identically on Baxters’ own site, Tesco, Morrisons and Ocado. Contains fish sauce (anchovy), which contributes to the seasoning-driven sodium here too.
Salt: 2.1g per 100g, confirmed on its own Tesco nutrition panel. The UK’s most widely-stocked brand isn’t the lowest-sodium option, but it’s mid-table rather than an outlier.
Salt: 2.1g per 100g for the current 200g pack (McGrocer). An older 215g-jar formulation shows a much lower 0.6g/100g on some retailer archives — that appears to be a discontinued recipe, not the current jar, so we didn’t use it.
Salt: 2.13g per 100g, direct from marksandspencer.com. Uses tamari soy sauce and miso for seasoning depth, which contributes to the higher figure versus M&S’s own Golden variant.
Salt: 2.2g per 100g — confirmed identically on both Ocado and McGrocer. Noticeably higher than Mrs Elswood’s own Classic Kimchi (1.6g/100g), likely from its miso-and-rice-flour base.
Salt: 2.66g per 100g (McGrocer.ae) — the highest we’ve confirmed on this page. It’s also the only brand here whose ingredient list names both salted anchovy AND salted shrimp, a traditional double-seafood seasoning that tracks with the higher sodium.
Brands Without a Confirmed Sodium Figure Yet
These 11 brands — mostly small independents — don’t have a full salt/sodium panel we could find on a current UK retailer listing or their own site this pass. Rather than estimate a number, we’re listing them separately with a link to their full review and, where confirmed, their Amazon UK listing.
Low-Sodium UK Kimchi — FAQ
Of the 11 UK brands we’ve independently confirmed via retailer nutrition panels, Sun Hee Kimchi has the lowest sodium at 380mg per 100g (0.95g salt), sold at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.
Ajumma Republic Kimchi has the highest confirmed sodium at 1,064mg per 100g (2.66g salt), sold at Asda. It’s also the only brand in this comparison that lists both salted anchovy and salted shrimp in its ingredients, which tracks with the higher figure.
UK food labels show Salt, not Sodium, per 100g. The two are linked by a fixed food-labelling conversion: Sodium (mg) = Salt (g) × 400. So a kimchi with 2g of salt per 100g contains 800mg of sodium per 100g. This is a regulatory conversion factor, not an estimate.
Not clearly either way — the ranges overlap. Our confirmed UK brands run from 380mg to 1,064mg of sodium per 100g. Our USA ranking (which uses a 1/4-cup, roughly 60g, serving convention) runs from about 190mg to 560mg per 1/4 cup — roughly 315mg to 930mg per 100g once converted — so the two markets land in a broadly similar range, brand-by-brand rather than country-by-country.
The Cultured Collective, Kelly Loves, Tickles’ Pickles, Kim Kong, Ollie’s Kimchi, The North Shop, Eaten Alive, Peichin’s Table, Loving Foods, mr. kimchi, and Kimchi & Radish don’t yet have a confirmed sodium figure from a retailer nutrition panel — several are small-batch, short-shelf-life products without a full published back-of-pack panel online. We list these separately rather than estimate a number.
Not necessarily. Sodium level mostly reflects how much added salt and salty seasoning (fish sauce, salted shrimp, soy sauce) a brand uses, not how traditionally it’s fermented. Sun Hee is still a traditional-style recipe despite its lower figure; Ajumma Republic is higher specifically because of traditional salted-seafood seasonings rather than added table salt.
Ji-Young Park read the actual salt-per-100g figure off each brand’s own current UK retailer nutrition panel, converted it to sodium, and ranked every brand that could be independently confirmed — rather than estimating figures for the rest. Published September 27, 2026.
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Dr. Sarah Mitchell reviewed the salt-to-sodium conversion methodology and the dietary guidance on this page for accuracy, including how these figures fit into general and medically restricted sodium intake.
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