Target Salt 2025: A Global Overview of National Programs to Encourage the Food Industry to Reduce Salt in Foods
1
The George Institute for Global Health, Food Policy Division, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Population Salt Reduction, Sydney 2050, Australia
2
World Cancer Research Fund, Policy and Public Affairs, London WC1B 3HH, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nutrients 2014, 6(8), 3274-3287; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu6083274
Received: 16 July 2014
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Revised: 7 August 2014
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Accepted: 11 August 2014
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Published: 21 August 2014
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Salt and Health: A Public Health Issue)
Reducing population salt intake has been identified as a priority intervention to reduce non-communicable diseases. Member States of the World Health Organization have agreed to a global target of a 30% reduction in salt intake by 2025. In countries where most salt consumed is from processed foods, programs to engage the food industry to reduce salt in products are being developed. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of national initiatives to encourage the food industry to reduce salt. A systematic review of the literature was supplemented by key informant questionnaires to inform categorization of the initiatives. Fifty nine food industry salt reduction programs were identified. Thirty eight countries had targets for salt levels in foods and nine countries had introduced legislation for some products. South Africa and Argentina have both introduced legislation limiting salt levels across a broad range of foods. Seventeen countries reported reductions in salt levels in foods—the majority in bread. While these trends represent progress, many countries have yet to initiate work in this area, others are at early stages of implementation and further monitoring is required to assess progress towards achieving the global target.
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Keywords:
salt reduction; sodium; food composition; government initiative; international; cardiovascular diseases; food industry; monitoring
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
MDPI and ACS Style
Webster, J.; Trieu, K.; Dunford, E.; Hawkes, C. Target Salt 2025: A Global Overview of National Programs to Encourage the Food Industry to Reduce Salt in Foods. Nutrients 2014, 6, 3274-3287. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu6083274
AMA Style
Webster J, Trieu K, Dunford E, Hawkes C. Target Salt 2025: A Global Overview of National Programs to Encourage the Food Industry to Reduce Salt in Foods. Nutrients. 2014; 6(8):3274-3287. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu6083274
Chicago/Turabian StyleWebster, Jacqui, Kathy Trieu, Elizabeth Dunford, and Corinna Hawkes. 2014. "Target Salt 2025: A Global Overview of National Programs to Encourage the Food Industry to Reduce Salt in Foods" Nutrients 6, no. 8: 3274-3287. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu6083274
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