The dating between food production and salt is complex. For years, chefs, who generously sprinkle handfuls of salt on their plates, have been telling us that seasoning with salt is synonymous with flavor. Alongside this, the food industry has long produced products with a high salt content, to increase flavor, as well as for other purposes such as preservation and thickening.
More recently, however, the risks of salt-rich nutrition are better understood and we are now told that salt should be used much more sparingly. So how can the food industry reduce salt in food products, and what else can be done to ensure healthy degrees of salt in food products?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “almost all populations consume too much sodium. “The recommended daily intake of salt is less than five grams per day for adults. However, the actual daily intake is more than double, or about 10. 78 grams per day.
A diet rich in salt has been linked to a number of serious fitness problems, including high blood pressure, an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, gastric cancer, obesity, osteoporosis, Meniere’s disease, and kidney disease. In addition, the WHO estimates that there are about 1. 89 million deaths per year equivalent to excessive salt consumption.
“Reducing sodium intake is one of the most cost-effective measures to stay fit and reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases,” says a WHO spokesperson.
The salt content of staple foods commonly found in store cupboards, along with preserves, breakfast cereals and bread, is high. However, “it doesn’t have to be this way,” says Amanda Shiach, a research assistant and coordinator of patients and public engagement at Queen Mary University of London, at the recent Nature Forum “Reducing Salt in Our Diet. “”We can eat delicious foods, but with less salt. Less salt equals less damage. There is consistently strong and transparent evidence that reducing salt intake reduces blood pressure and deaths from cardiovascular disease.
However, there is good news on the horizon, as in the past the salt relief measures implemented have already yielded positive results.
“The evidence framework is surely overwhelming, with over a hundred randomised controlled trials, physiological studies, epidemiological studies, migration studies, population studies, plus the UK’s own salt relief programme over the last 20 years. We saw a relief in the amount of salt in food, which led to a reduction in blood pressure in the population, as well as a reduction in cardiovascular disease and death,” Shiach adds.
So how were those salt relief targets set for UK food production and how were they implemented?
“The UK was one of the first countries to launch a comprehensive salt relief programme, introduced through the Food Standards Agency,” says Sonia Pombo, campaigner at Action on Salt. “They came up with a multifaceted approach. There has been a lot of collaboration with the Food and Beverage Federation, food shops and manufacturers, but also with fitness professionals and NGOs such as [Action on Salt]. So, it led to the progression of a very comprehensive program that included a number of other things, added salt relief targets in nearly 80 other food categories, and worked with the food industry to better understand what the salt content of those foods is. And how can we reduce it?
“They set achievable goals and gave companies a moderate amount of time to achieve them. And they have stepped up their engagement with food businesses to better understand where difficult situations lie. But also, where there were successes, if any. Significant discounts on salt in food, how can we further reduce those levels?
“Innovation will be key to reducing salt,” says Jack Bobo, director of the Food Systems Institute at the University of Nottingham. “But it’s hard because consumers love innovation almost as much as they despise replenishment. And there is no position in which other people “despise restocking more than the food they eat, because food is what binds us together to friends and family. So we have a big challenge ahead of us. “
However, one form of innovation in salt relief is the use of potassium-enriched salt as a replacement for the most commonly used salty products.
“Potassium-fortified salts, also known as low-sodium replacement salts, in which a proportion of the sodium chloride is replaced with potassium chloride,” says Claudia Selin Batz, policy and advocacy advisor at the George Institute for Global Health. “Our studies have found that this is a suitable technique to mitigate the adverse effects of excessive sodium intake, but also to increase potassium intake. “
But can consumers taste the difference by eating potassium-fortified salts?Apparently not.
“They taste very similar to regular salt,” says Selin Batz.
However, the availability of potassium-enriched salt is a problem, as very few establishments sell it lately.
“Availability is a key issue,” adds Selin Batz. We have a potassium-enriched salt logo, “LoSalt,” and it’s not necessarily found in neighborhood stores, but rather in supermarkets, so we want to address this issue.
Governments around the world are already following up on studies highlighting the risks of a high-salt diet. However, not all governments enact laws to reduce the salt content of foods produced in their countries.
“The picture of the effects is mixed,” Shiach says. There are a diversity of political characteristics that governments can have. They can monitor, they can set goals, they can focus on processed foods or foods eaten away from home, they can replace the salt supply.
In addition to this, it is critical for consumers to understand the reason for reducing salt in food and how they can do so to reduce the amount of salt they use in the food they prepare at home.
“Consumer education has value in populations where more salt is used on a discretionary basis and more is invested in cooking,” Shiach adds.
And of course, the food industry plays an important role in making foods that are not only low in salt, but also delicious.
“Industry is certainly an important component of this process, as we have observed in the UK and around the world, as it is a component of the reformulation programme. They have replaced recipes, strategies, and technologies. And in the U. K. , at least, “There’s no loss of sales. People have adapted to converting the degrees of salt in food and adapted their tastes,” Shiach said.
“Many people continue to buy the foods they love, there is no loss of sales or business profits, and in the meantime we eat a little less salt,” Action on Salt’s Pombo.