The food industry has achieved only ‘stalled progress’ in its previously declared mission to reduce salt intakes, new Oxford University led analysis finds. This is based on empirical data that reveals the average salt content of food products sold at supermarkets showed no change between 2015 and 2020. Indeed, for certain products (ready meals, pizzas and soups) the volume of salt added has increased during this time of supposed salt reduction pledges.
Excess salt consumption is associated with increases the risk of high blood pressure and is thought to be responsible for at least 2.5 million deaths worldwide each year. This means reducing salt intake is a public health priority.
Taking the U.K.as an example since 2003 the government has set a series of voluntary targets to encourage the food industry to reformulate products to contain less salt. These targets are not legally-binding, and it has been unclear how much progress has been made in recent years.
To investigate this query, researchers from Oxford University assessed whether the amount of salt in a range of different foods sold in supermarkets had changed between 2015 and 2020. The study was based on the nine grocery food categories that contribute the most to adults’ salt intake in the UK. For each year, the analysis included approximately 8,000-9,500 food products from 400 different brands.
While the average salt content of all food products in the study fell, this was not statistically significant. The biggest reductions were seen in breakfast cereals (-16 percent) and processed beans, potatoes and vegetables (-11 percent), but there was no change for bread and ready meals. None of these changes were statistically significant.
The categories with the highest salt content in 2020 were savoury snacks (1.6g per 100g on average) and cheese (1.6g per 100g). Products with more than 1.5g salt per 100g are classed as ‘high’ in salt.
The volume of salt sold from all food products decreased from 2.41g per person per day in 2015, to 2.25g in 2020: a reduction of 0.16g per person (or 6.7 percent). This did not include table salt or salt consumed at restaurants, cafes, or fast foods, hence the total volume of salt consumed per person will be much higher.
Some reasons why food companies have been slow in cutting salt levels include the fact that reformulating food products is technically challenging, especially where salt acts as a preservative. In addition, often consumers are resistant to low salt varieties
The survey concludes maintaining that voluntary targets alone may be insufficient to achieve the government’s target of a population salt intake of less than 6g per day and additional policy measures might be needed to achieve further progress. This could include mandatory reporting of salt sales by manufacturers to improve transparency – as has been called for in the National Food Strategy.
The research appears in the journal PLoS One, titled “Changes in the salt content of packaged foods sold in supermarkets between 2015–2020 in the United Kingdom: A repeated cross-sectional study.”
