Sodium reduction
Salt consumption in perspective WHO recommendations for sodium intake ■ For adults: less than 2,000mg/day of sodium (equivalent to less than 5g/day of salt
■ All salt consumed should be iodised (fortified with iodine) to contribute to healthy brain development in infants and young children, and to optimise mental function.
WHO estimates of current sodium consumption ■ The global mean intake of adults is 4,310mg/day sodium (equivalent to 10.78g/day salt) – more than double the WHO recommendation for adults.
Source: WHO
environmentally friendly. If you want clean-label food products, then KCl won’t give you that. And potassium is a metal, so there is an aftertaste that food manufacturers need to mask with more flavour enhancers.”
Microsalt has come up with a patented process that aims to create the same level of salty taste by using less sodium chloride. Same taste, less sodium seems to be a winning formula, and the concept is ingenious, though there is an impact on cost for food manufacturers, and the scaling up of the supply chain remains challenging. “Potassium chloride is not good for you, and it is no longer the best solution,” says Guiney. “Now, you can have real salt without the excess sodium. We take a traditional crystal of salt and dramatically reduce its size to less than a micron. That greatly increases the surface area to volume ratio, and the salty experience on your tongue is more intense than with a bigger crystal.” “By making salt smaller there is a density problem, but we have solved that so it doesn’t lie around like dust,” he adds. “The concept of micro- sized particles is not new, but what is new is its application to salt crystals, so that they can be used as an ingredient in food. It is more expensive because we start with salt as a component, and then apply a process to it, but when you break it down on
a per serving basis for a large international food company the difference is not that great.”
A question of time? An issue close to Pombo’s heart is the fact that government schemes involving the food industry are often voluntary. The UK has a voluntary salt reduction programme with targets for December 2024, yet, at the time of writing, nothing has been published. In the US, the FDA is set to implement further voluntary sodium reduction targets, building on the targets set back in 2021. “The UK was one of the first countries to set a bold salt reduction programme, but now South Africa, Columbia and others have strong targets that are mandatory,” Pombo remarks. “Malaysia is also doing good work on that. Here, there was always a veiled threat for the last 20 years that if a voluntary programme did not work then mandatory targets would come in, but we are still waiting for that to happen.” Beyond rules, beyond substitutes, beyond new technologies, there is one method that is proven to reduce sodium intake. Tried and tested, highly effective, and cost-effective, it does have one major drawback – incremental change takes time. “If salt is used for flavour, it can be gradually reduced,” says Pombo. “We advocate for slow and unobtrusive reductions. You can reduce it gradually by up to 20% and research shows that the change goes relatively unnoticed.”
“It is all about the surface area that salt covers in your mouth, which can be slowly reduced, and the target can change further after a few years,” she adds. “Salt in breakfast cereals has come down significantly. Cornflakes contain 50% less salt than 20 years ago. The reduction of salt in bread has also been significant and bread is the biggest route for consumption of salt in our diets.” Perhaps sodium reduction is, after all, a waiting game. ●
The WHO estimates that 1.89 million deaths each year are associated with the consumption of too much sodium.
74 Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
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