Salt Stakeholders Meeting – Department of Health & Food Standards Agency – Meeting held on Monday 10 November 2003

Citation

(2005), "Salt Stakeholders Meeting – Department of Health & Food Standards Agency – Meeting held on Monday 10 November 2003", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 35 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/nfs.2005.01735bab.003

Salt Stakeholders Meeting – Department of Health & Food Standards Agency – Meeting held on Monday 10 November 2003

Salt Stakeholders Meeting – Department of Health & Food Standards Agency – Meeting held on Monday 10 November 2003

Sir Liam Donaldson chaired the day; he opened it by giving a list of statistics. These were quite sobering, as it appears that the deaths from high blood pressure have increased particularly in the elderly. There are now substantiated links between salt intake, obesity, high fat intake and high blood pressure. The government are targeting to reduce these levels to increase better public health.

Processed foods give the greatest cause for concern; they contain too much salt, in particular for children. What did become clear was that the category of ready prepared foods included bread, cakes, pastries, cereal and soups not just chilled/frozen ready prepared meals. The levels of salt in these foods are far too high.

Currently the Reference Nutritional Intake (RNI) is 9 gm per day; it is intended that this will reduce to 6 gm per day.

In conjunction with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) the government want to reduce salt particularly in processed foods, where over 75 per cent of salt use has increased in some people from 9 gm to 12 gm per day.