U.S. Plans Drive to Limit Salt in Foods

April 20, 2010

U.S. Plans Drive to Limit Salt in Foods: article on FoxNews about it:

" U.S. regulators are planning a push to gradually cut the amount of salt

Americans consume, saying less sodium would reduce deaths from hypertension and

heart disease, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The effort would eventually lead to the first legal limits on the amount of salt

allowed in processed foods, the newspaper reported. The plan is to be launched

this year but officials have not set salt limits.

The government plans to work with the food industry and health experts to reduce

sodium gradually over a period of years to ratchet down sodium consumption, the

newspaper said, citing U.S. Food and Drug Administration sources.

U.S. researchers said in a recent study that working with the food industry to

cut salt intake by nearly 10 percent could prevent hundreds of thousands of

heart attacks and strokes over several decades and save the U.S. government $32

billion in healthcare costs.

Eating too much salt is a major cause of high blood pressure, which the

Institute of Medicine, one of the National Academies of Sciences, last week

declared a " neglected disease " that costs the U.S. health system $73 billion a

year.

The FDA, which regulates most processed foods, and the U.S. Agriculture

Department, which oversees meat and poultry, will work together on the effort to

reduce Americans' sodium consumption.

Manufacturers can now use as much salt as they like in products but they are

required to report the amount on nutrition labels.

Many food makers have already begun to cut salt content.

In March, PepsiCo Inc, which owns the Pepsi, Frito-Lay and Quaker brands,

announced that it plans a reduction of 25 percent in the average sodium per

serving in major global food brands in key markets by 2015. "

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