Sodium reduction
ll around the world, food is making people sick – and killing them. That is a bold statement, but it is also unfortunately true. Non-communicable diseases (NCD) include an array of diagnoses, but many are caused by the food we eat. As the costs associated with NCDs such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and strokes are steadily increasing, some governments have taken steps to help consumers make better decisions and are encouraging or even forcing manufacturers to make important changes in their product formulations. In recent years, salt overconsumption has attracted attention due to irrefutable evidence from studies that show that a leading cause of heart disease was due to sodium overconsumption, which is 40% of the compound that makes up salt.
Salt is essential for preservation, flavour enhancement, food structure and other necessary functions. In the food manufacturing world, it is one of the least expensive and most necessary ingredients. However, high sodium intake increases blood pressure, and hypertension is one of the primary causes of cardiovascular disease. Reducing sodium consumption worldwide is a cost-effective strategy to preventing NCDs, namely by controlling high blood pressure to reduce cardiovascular mortality.
460mg
The amount per day sodium intake has fallen in South Africa due to legislative action.
NuTek 76
What can global efforts towards sodium reduction teach the US? In countries such as Australia, Chile, Peru, Israel, Mexico and the UK, when consumers purchase processed and packaged food to prepare and consume at home, front-of-package warning labels (FOPWLs) have begun changing consumer behaviour by drawing attention to the nutritional contents. FOPWLs appear in the form of stop signs, colour- coded warnings and letter grades. Not only do FOPWLs encourage consumers to select products by comparing salt, sugar, fats and calories on the front of the package, but it also encourages food manufacturers to improve their nutritional profiles to avoid the resulting warnings that may discourage consumers from purchasing their products. South Africa, Canada and Colombia are all working towards policies to include FOPWLs on food products while the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended FOPWLs as a tool to help decrease NCDs worldwide.
Global efforts A
Linda Call, marketing operations manager at NuTek, discusses the importance of sodium reduction in people’s food intake.
Some countries set sodium reduction targets by mandatory policies, but these can be difficult to enforce. Other countries have instituted voluntary sodium reduction policies that can be effective through competitive pressure. Voluntary guidelines are generally more achievable, and food manufacturers generally have an extended time period to achieve the results stipulated by the guidelines. Currently, ten European countries have mandatory initiatives against high salt levels, and 25 have voluntary initiatives involving labelling maximum salt targets in foods and reformulation programmes. Along with countries taking the initiative to set sodium reduction targets, the WHO released a new set of global benchmarks in 2021 for sodium levels in 60 different food categories.
As a good example of countries setting an effective sodium reduction policy, South Africa had one of the highest rates of hypertension worldwide with poor medical management once hypertension was diagnosed. In 2012 and 2013, South Africa established legislation to implement mandatory sodium reduction. By 2016, South Africa was the first country in the world to legislate salt levels, and now not only have two-thirds of the mandatory targets been met, but sodium intake has fallen by 460mg per day. Another way countries like Hungary and Thailand are mandating sodium reduction is by implementing salt taxes to encourage food manufacturers to reformulate their products.
The FDA’s voluntary sodium guidance for food manufacturers While some governments have taken aggressive steps to improve the health of consumers by mandatory or voluntary changes in the food system, others are still playing catch up.
In an effort to join other nations in improving the health consciousness of the food market, the US FDA released draft guidance in 2016 to limit sodium consumption to 2,300mg per day by targeting a broad range of processed, packaged and prepared foods. However, the FDA later walked back from this and announced in December 2021 that their final guidance for food manufacturers will provide short-term sodium reduction targets of 3,000mg per day and evaluating manufacturers’ progress over two and a half years.
Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
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