The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday issued draft guidelines that would set voluntary targets for an array of foods, an effort to help consumers decrease salt intake from an average 3,400 milligrams a day now to 3,000 mg in two years and 2,300 mg in a decade. Food companies and restaurants could soon face government pressure to make their foods less salty ¿ a long-awaited federal effort to try to prevent thousands of deaths each year from heart disease and stroke. “Today’s announcement is about putting power back in the hands of consumers”, the FDA says, “so that they can better control how much salt is in the food they eat and improve their health”.
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The guidelines place foods in 150 categories, outlining new target sodium reductions in everything from bacon and fries to pasta sauces, soups and salads with toppings. Each will have different sodium targets, and some products will have more room for reductions than others.
“It gives every American more control over their diet and sodium intake”, said Karen DeSalvo, acting assistant health secretary, in a call with reporters on the new guidelines.
The proposal will go through a public comment period where industry and citizens can weigh in before the rules are finalized. It is also vastly greater than the 1,500 mg limit recommended for people with hypertension or pre-hypertension, which represents approximately two-thirds of the US population.
A number of manufacturers – including Nestlé, Mars Food, and General Mills – have already responded to the pressure to cut the sodium in their products or offer low-salt alternatives.
The guidelines set two- and 10-year goals and officials stress that many companies have already met or were working toward the two-year goals.
Likewise, FDA says the new targets take into account the important role that sodium plays in food safety, stability and other functions and, as such, the new goals maintain concentrations that serve these functions. When the administration attempted to create voluntary guidelines for advertising junk food for children, the industry fought the idea and Republicans in Congress backed the food companies up, prompting the administration to put them aside.
Likewise, Canada’s voluntary sodium reduction strategy introduced in 2010 also aims to reduce average sodium consumption to 2,300 milligrams per day by 2016.
“Because the majority of sodium in our diets comes from processed and prepared foods, consumers are challenged in lowering their sodium intake themselves”, Mayne added.
“Our approach encourages gradually reducing sodium in the majority of foods that contain it”.
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The American Heart Association endorsed the draft guidelines. In 2010, efforts to introduce guidelines on junk food being advertised to children faced opposition from both the food industry and a Republican-dominated Congress, which could make introducing mandatory sodium targets hard down the road. High blood pressure affects about a third of Americans overall and about 50 percent of African-Americans. The FDA also modernized the list of what foods can be legally labeled as “healthy” partly due to confusion from old dietary guidelines. FDA will then consider those comments before issuing final guidance, which even then will be voluntary.
