Sodium reduction
Salt shakers
From governments to the WHO, brands are under rising pressure to remove salt from their products. Yet if there are a range of health benefits in cutting back on sodium, what can R&D teams do to maintain the flavours customers expect? One solution involves switching ingredients: potassium chloride is a common alternative to sodium chloride, even as MSG is becoming popular too. Not that tweaking recipes is quite so simple in practice. Phoebe Galbraith learns more, speaking to René Lammers, chief scientific officer at PepsiCo; and Sonia Pombo, a research fellow and campaign lead at Action on Salt.
F
rom restaurants to supermarkets, the food industry is under increasing pressure to reduce the sodium content in the products they prepare and sell. From farming and R&D departments – right down to the consumer salt shakers – that’s clear acrosss upply chains. Fundamentally, this is due to the health dangers that consuming too much sodium can cause, notably rising blood pressure and heart failure. Yet though 64% of consumers are now aware of high-sodium health implications, only 37% actually pay attention to how much they consume. Even worse, roughly
Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
75-80% of the salt we consume is actually ‘hidden’ salt added before consumers even buy the food. This is not helped by voluntary regulation and guidance that surround sodium intake levels in many countries. In 2003, for instance, the UK launched a pioneering voluntary salt reduction programme. At first, the scheme was successful: average salt intake initially declined from 9.38g/day to 7.58g/day, cutting blood pressure and strokes along the way. Since the food industry took over the voluntary policy in 2014, however, the programme has been less effective – with research by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)
Above: Consuming too much salt can contribute to rising blood pressure and heart failure.
37%
Consumers that actually pay attention to how much sodium they consume. SALTS survey
65
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