The health consequences of excessive salt consumption are not in doubt. It’s associated with high blood pressure – which in turn can lead to heart disease and strokes – and is a significant cause of mortality. According to WHO, around 2.5 million deaths could be prevented every year if global salt consumption were reduced to the recommended level.
This is no small task. Across the globe, the average person consumes 9–12g of salt a day, about twice the recommended maximum intake of 5g a day. Yet only a handful of nations meet the recommended levels. Some, such as Kazakhstan, consume as much as three times the maximum.
It’s a pressing public health issue, and one that governments are beginning to treat as a priority. In 2011, WHO member states agreed to an ambitious target: reducing the world’s salt intake by 30% by 2025. By 2014, 75 countries had a national salt reduction strategy in place.
While these strategies vary widely, a common theme is to increase consumer awareness; for example, via public health campaigns or mandatory labeling initiatives. If people know the facts, they can make more informed choices about what they eat. But the food industry also plays a critical role in reducing salt intake.
Preventive action
“In many countries around the world, including the UK, Europe, the US and Australia, up to 80% of the salt that we eat [is] added by the food industry to prepackaged foods,” says Mhairi Brown, a nutritionist at World Action on Salt and Health (WASH). “Although educating consumers to make healthier choices is very important, it’s incredibly difficult to make a healthy choice when there’s already so much salt in the foods we buy.”
For many manufacturers, then, product reformulation is unavoidable. Although a few countries have introduced mandatory caps on sodium levels, many others have voluntary targets and a few have introduced a salt tax. This means the pressure is on, especially for manufacturers selling across multiple markets.
“By reformulating products to contain fewer ingredients that are known to negatively affect our health, the food industry can play its part in protecting and valuing customers’ health,” says Brown. “Typically, unhealthy foods are cheaper and tend to be promoted more by supermarkets. The food industry must do more to make sure that healthier options are available at lower prices, or that all products available are lower in salt, sugar and saturated fat.”
WASH, a global NGO established in 2005, aims to improve the health of populations by achieving a gradual reduction in salt intake. It was born from CASH (Consensus Action on Salt and Health), the initiative behind the UK’s salt reduction programme. This was hugely successful: salt intake in the UK reportedly fell by 15% between 2003 and 2011, coinciding with a fall in average blood pressure, and deaths from heart attacks and strokes.
Although the CASH template can’t be replicated exactly in other countries, its overall goals are the same. WASH members work to lobby their respective governments, as well as encouraging multinational food companies to reduce salt in their products. “We are constantly trying to have a progressive dialogue with the food industry. We want to work with them in reducing global salt consumption and a collaborative effort is the quickest way to getting action,” says Brown.
Hard task
That said, the task isn’t always straightforward. Salt has been used for thousands of years in food manufacturing and preservation, and its functions often extend beyond enhancing flavour.
As Brian Kennedy of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) explains, “Sodium in foods provides more than just taste – it also plays a crucial role in the safety, texture and proper leavening of certain foods. Unfortunately, no other single ingredient currently performs all the functions that sodium does on its own.”
As a trade association representing the world’s largest food and beverage companies, GMA works to help its members with product innovation. Kennedy says some of them are looking at alternative salts. “Some companies are replacing sodium compounds with potassium, magnesium or calcium compounds,” he says. “These alternatives may offer some of the same technical functions of sodium, but they often cannot be substituted one for one, as they contribute less saltiness and balance to overall flavour profiles, while adding bitter and metallic off-notes.”
Other companies are using technologies that enable them to change the particle size or shape. “Micronised sodium chloride crystals, which can be sprayed topically on foods, dissolve more quickly on the tongue and provide a concentrated salty taste with less sodium per gram,” Kennedy says. “This technology has been applied in snack products such as potato chips or crackers. Hollow particles of salt can also be used in foods to reduce sodium intake while maintaining a salty taste.”
Further reductions in sodium, he says, will hinge on the development of new technologies and ingredients. In particular, he would like to see a research breakthrough on the biological receptor for salty tastes. “This is needed so that true alternatives to the unique flavour of sodium can be developed in the same way that sweeteners mimic a sugary taste,” he says. “Sweet receptors are generally well understood, which helped to lead the discovery of new natural sweeteners and enhancers that aid in the manufacture of reduced-sugar products.”
Targeted solutions
In the meantime, it is clear that sodium reduction is easier in some food and beverage categories than for others. It is particularly tricky for foods like cheese, in which salt has an impact on textural and cooking properties, or meat products, where salt helps control microbial growth.
However, WASH takes the view that if some companies in a category are capable of meeting the targets, there is no reason that the rest can’t follow suit. A 2012 CASH report, ‘Technical solutions to salt reduction across eight categories of food’, contains many examples.
According to the report, bacon supplier VION developed a low-salt product using umami flavouring technology, giving the lie to the idea that it can’t be done. KP Hula Hoops began to use potassium salts, and a number of cake manufacturers were using potassium-based raising agents. Meanwhile, stir-fry sauces showed a wide fluctuation in salt levels, with some containing ‘trace’ levels and others saltier than seawater.
WASH’s product surveys, which are conducted at least once a year, function as a way to open a dialogue with industry and indirectly put pressure on food companies. The group highlights low-salt products that meet current salt reduction targets, as well as ‘naming and shaming’ those that aren’t doing so well.
Collaborative effort
However, WASH doesn’t place the blame solely in the hands of manufacturers. As Brown explains, without governmentmandated targets or a properly monitored voluntary programme, there isn’t a level playing field across countries. Likewise, some companies may put a lot of effort into reformulation work, while others might not make it a focus.
“Resources must be put into reformulation, and innovation may be required to meet some of the more stringent targets,” she says. “This can be a challenge for smaller companies. In addition, it is often argued that products are adapted to the taste of local consumers, hence the difference in salt levels for the same product. This again highlights the importance of setting a coherent salt reduction strategy in every country – if everyone’s taste preference for salt gradually decreases in tandem, then the argument becomes obsolete.”
While several of the major players have implemented public sodium reduction strategies, they tend to keep a lot of the salient information under wraps.
“International companies such as Mars and Mondelez International have committed to salt reductions across their portfolios of 20 and 10% respectively, which is on top of reductions they have been making since the early 2000s, but they do not state the products involved,” Brown says. “Companies such as Unilever have stated that they will reformulate products to enable a salt intake of 5g a day, which again does not give detail of where reductions are being made or if these reductions cover all markets.”
Still, progress is being made. While WHO’s 2025 target is still years away, governments are already piling on the pressure. From the point of view of food manufacturers, that means acting sooner rather than later.
“We have never had a conversation with a company where they disputed the scientific evidence regarding salt and high blood pressure, and in general, companies are aware that they should be reducing salt in their foods,” says Brown. “However, progress will only continue if the pressure is applied, by government, NGOs like ourselves, and consumer demand.”
