Recent Press Releases
McCains Foods move to cut sodium levels
10.08.2010 - McCains Foods is working on new recipes for its packaged food products to meet guidelines laid out in Health Canada's Sodium Reduction Strategy. Calla Fern, Vice President of Public Relations for McCains said that the company has been working on lowering the sodium levels in their products for a couple of years. Fern also highlighted that as the industry leader they (McCains) need to be proactive. McCains has a 'better for you program' in place that sets a number of health criteria, one of which less than 230mg sodium per serving in 60% of new products launched.
Click here for the full news article
CANADA - Sodium Working Group publishes report on sodium reduction strategy for Canada.
29.07.2010 -The 25 member expert Sodium Working Group published it's report on the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada. The report's 27 recommendations offers 'sound expert advise for Government and Industry to take actions that could save thousands of lives annually, protect the public purse, and improve economic productivity' said Bill Jeffery, National Coordinator of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and a member of the sodium working group. The recommendations include setting sodium-reduction targets for dozens of food categories and measuring progress of companies towards achieving them, reducing the Nutrition Facts table's 'daily value' for sodium from 2400mg to 1500mg sodium, mandate serving sizes as the basis for reporting nutrition information and including sodium limits in government food service policies and procurement contracts (e.g. For schools, hospitals and the millitary) to name a few.
Click here for the full press release
Click here for Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada
Del Monte Foods Company to Reduce Sodium by at Least 20 Percent by 2015
26.07.2010 - Demonstrating its dedication to helping consumers lead healthier lifestyles, Del Monte Foods Company today announces its commitment to reduce sodium by at least 20 percent across its branded portfolio of vegetable, tomato and broth products that contain added salt by 2015.
Click here for full press release
Dutch Minister for Public Health called on industry to speed up work on salt reduction
09.07.2010 - Following a study carried out by the Dutch Food Safety Authority which showed that more can be done in terms of salt reduction in processed foods, Klink, Dutch Minister of Health calls on the food industry to take further action.
Research demonstrates a new damaging effect of salt intake on the circulatory system
29.06.2010 - A new study published today provides increasing evidence to suggest that our high salt intake has direct damaging effects on small blood vessels (capillaries) that may be independent and additive to the effect of salt in raising blood pressure.
Click here for further details
UK's government advisers recommend salt intake to be reduced to 3g by 2025
(UK) The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Public Health Programme Guidance on the ‘Prevention of cardiovascular disease at population level’ has been published, which endorses a reduction in the salt target from 6g a day to 3g a day by 2025.
Click here for the full press release
Serbia publishes results of the salt content found in student's meals
(Serbia) Ljiljana Trajkovic-Pavlovic et al published the results of a survey of the salt content of school meals served in boarding schools and student’s centres in Novi Sad. The investigations indicated that pupils were receiving salt in quantities that exceeded internationally established population goals. Adolescents and young adults were consuming an average of between 16-18g of salt per day.
Click here for the paper (pgs 45-51)
AWASH exposes high salt levels in processed meat (June 2010)
(Australia) Less than 10% of processed meats in Australian supermarkets have acceptable salt levels, according to data released by The George Institute.The research examined salt levels in 552 processed meat products including bacon, sausages, deli meats, meat burgers, meat pies and canned meat. Only 5% of sliced sandwich meats and 3% of sausages met international benchmarks.
Click here for the press release
World Hypertension Day - May 17th 2010
(Worldwide) The World Hypertension League (WHL), in collaboration with WASH, are celebrating World Hypertension Day on May 17th with the message 'Healthy Weight, Healthy Blood Pressure'. The four lifestyle suggestions are; Check Your Waist, Eat Green, Exercise and Cut Salt.
Click here for the WHD 2010 brochure
Click here for the WHD 2010 poster
Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States - Institute of Medicine
(USA) The Institute of Medicine has released the report 'Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States', recommending that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set mandatory national standards for the sodium content in foods.
Please click here for the IoM Report
Subway announces 33% salt reduction in the UK
(UK) Subway has announced that the salt levels in its products have been reduced by an average of 33%, by working closely with suppliers to reduce the salt content in raw ingredients. WASH encourages its members to commit Subway to making this progress in their country.
Click here for the Subway Press Release
Australia announce salt targets for bread and breakfast cereals (Mar '10)
(Australia) The Australian government announced salt targets for bread and breakfast cereals. AWASH have congratulated the government and keenly anticipate hearing the salt targets for other food categories.
Click here for the AWASH press release
Reducing salt intake will save money and save lives (Mar '10)
(USA) Further weight has been added to the argument that a policy-driven approach to reduce sodium intake will save money and save lives. A new study from the US suggests that a decrease in 9.5% in mean population sodium intake (as seen in the UK) would prevent thousands of strokes and heart attacks over the lifetimes of adults aged 40-85 years who are alive today, and save more than $32billion in medical expenses. Please read the full paper and accompanying editorial below.
Click here for the full paper in Annals of Internal Medicine
Click here for the editorial from Thomas Frieden and Peter Briss
Pan American Health Organization Policy Statement (Feb '10)
The PAHO/WHO Regional Expert Group on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention through Dietary Salt Reduction has produced a policy statement outlining the recommendations for a population-based approach to reduce dietary salt intake in the Americas. The goal is a gradual and sustained drop in dietary salt intake to reach national targets or the internationally recommended target of less than 5g/day/person by 2020.
Click here for the PAHO Policy Statement
1st-7th February World Salt Awareness Week 2010 - Salt and your health
The focus of World Salt Awareness Week 2010 is ‘Salt and Your Health’. Many people are aware that salt can damage their health, but do not know it is linked to serious health conditions such as stroke and heart failure. There is also increasing evidence supporting links between our current high salt diets and the onset of stomach cancer, osteoporosis, obesity and kidney stones and kidney disease.
Click here for more information
Salt reduction as a public health target - new paper in NEJM (Jan'10)
(USA) A new paper by Bibbins-Domingo et al published in the New England Journal of Medicine makes for a further compelling case for salt reduction throughout the world. The paper emphasises the enormous public health benefits, and medical cost reductions, of salt reduction on cardiovascular disease.
Click here for the paper in New England Journal of Medicine
Click here for the accompanying editorial from L. Appel
Click here for an article in the European Society of Cardiology
New York City sets salt reduction goal (Jan '10)
(USA) New York has set a goal of gradually reducing the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant food by 25 percent over the next five years. The plan is voluntary for food companies and involves no legislation, however it does require cooperation on a national scale. The supermarket chain A.& P. and Subway are on board.
Click here for The New York Times article
Click here for the New York Salt Targets for packaged foods
Study reveals high salt intake in young Swedish Men (Dec '09)
(Sweden) A new paper published in the journal Public Health Nutrition reports the results of a 24-hr urinary sodium analysis of young Swedish Men. The findings, by L Hulthen and WASH member M Aurell et al reveals salt intake to be very high at approx 11.5g NaCl/day. The researchers are calling for the food industry to curb the salt content of its products.
Click here for the full paper in Public Health Nutrition
Click here for news article in Food Navigator
Healthy Caribbean Coalition - Battling the hidden enemy (Jan 10)
AWASH publishes a systematic survey of the sodium contents of processed foods in Australia (Dec '09)
Click here for the full paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Click here for the supporting article in Food Navigator
BMJ paper further cements the case for population-wide salt reduction (Nov '09)
(Worldwide) A new meta-analysis of prospective studies on salt intake, stroke, and cardiovascular disease has made the case for population-wide salt reduction even stronger. The analysis, by Professor Strazzullo and Professor Cappuccio shows that a difference of 5 g a day in habitual salt intake is associated with a 23% difference in the rate of stroke and a 17% difference in the rate of total cardiovascular disease.
Based on these results, reducing daily salt intake by 5 g at the population level could avert one and a quarter million deaths from stroke and almost three million deaths from cardiovascular disease each year.
Cick here for the WASH comment
Canada continues to challenge food industry (Nov '09)
(Canada) Manufacturers and the Canada's Sodium Working Group under fire for moving too slowly to reduce salt in Canada. WASH member Norm Campbell, chairman of a new expert group created by the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization is urging governments to launch sodium-reduction campaigns immediately, to provide industry with incentives or regulation to reduce sodium in food products, and to educate consumers about the importance of cutting salt from their diets
Click here for newspaper article
Portuguese Parliament approves a law restricting the sodium content of processed foods
(Portugal) Following the publication of a pilot study on salt-consumption habits and sources of salt in almost 500 people, Dr Luis Martins and colleagues from the Portuguese Society of Hypertension spearheaded a mass-media campaign about the harmful consequences of consuming too much salt, which in turn has led to the Portuguese Parliament approving a law restricting the sodium content of processed foods.
Click here for newspaper article
New Research reveals huge differences in salt contents in global brands (July '09)
• WASH surveyed over 260 food products around the world from KFC, McDonalds, Kellogg's, Nestle, Burger King and Subway
• Not one product surveyed had the same salt content around the world
(Worldwide) New research published today by World Action on Salt and Health ( WASH ) shows that many popular meals eaten in UK high-street restaurants can contain large amounts of salt, in some cases more than twice the daily maximum limit for an adult in a single meal.
World Action on Salt and Health (WASH) has surveyed over 260 food products available around the world from food manufacturers such as KFC, McDonalds, Kellogg's, Nestle, Burger King and Subway. Not one product surveyed had the same salt content around the world and some displayed huge differences in salt content from one country to another.
Click here for the full press release
Click here for excel spreadsheet with all survey data
Click here for excel spreadsheet with Top Tables
Click here for full media coverage
The UK's Food Standard's Agency Revised Salt Targets for 2012 (May '09)
(UK) The UK's Food Standard's Agency (FSA) has set lower targets for the food industry to reach by 2012. CASH is disappointed that some sections of the food indusrty have not agreed to lower targets, when in many cases supermarkets are already producing foods with salt levels around the 2012 targets.
Click here for the CASH Comment
Click here for the FSA's Press release and full data
World Hypertension Day May 17th 2009
(Worldwide) The World Hypertension League (WHL), in collaboration with WASH, are celebrating World Hypertension Day on May 17th by urging health experts and chefs to raise awareness of two silent killers: Salt and high blood pressure.
Click here for the WHL press release
Click here for the brochure in English / French
Click here for the poster in English / French
AWASH release finding on salt levels in Australian pizzas (May 09)
(Australia) A new analysis by AWASH has relealed that 94% of Australian pizzas are overloaded with salt, and that just 3 slices of pizza can contain an adult's entire daily salt intake.
Click here for the full report
Review of salt and health and worldwide salt reduction (Mar '09)
(Wolrdwide) A new paper by He and MacGregor reviewing salt and health, and worldwide salt reduction programmes, has been published in the Journal of Human Hypertension.
The paper examines the relationship between a high salt diet and health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, left ventricular hypertrophy and renal disease. The review also looks at the evidence suggesting links between salt intake and obesity, renal stones, osteoporosis and stomach cancer.
Approaches to implementing salt reduction strategies around the world are discussed, highlighting successful examples from Japan, Finland and the United Kingdom.