Salt Reduction in New Zealand The Development of a New Zealand Salt Reduction Model

Abstract

Background Excessive dietary sodium intake is associated with raised blood pressure, the leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The major source of sodium in the diet comes from salt in processed foods. New Zealanders consume ~8-9g/day of salt, which greatly exceeds the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendation of <5g/day. To initiate reformulation of processed foods, the United Kingdom (UK) developed a Salt Reduction Model that predicted the reductions required in a range of food categories to reduce UK salt intakes to 6g/day. These targets went on to inform voluntary targets set for the UK food industry. Since this, the UK has seen a fall in population salt intakes. Aim To develop a Salt Reduction Model for New Zealand (NZ) that will inform food industry, public health advocates and the Government of the sodium reductions in packaged foods required to reduce the population’s current salt intake to the WHO goal of 5g/day. Method Aggregate NZ food composition and food purchasing data were used to determine the average quantity of food consumed by an adult for a range of packaged food categories and the current mean sodium content of those categories. Using these data, a model was created and target values were set for mean sodium contents for each food category in order to meet an overall intake of 5g/day of salt. Results The removal of 628mg of sodium from the packaged food supply (a 36% reduction) paired with a 40% reduction in other sources of dietary sodium would reduce the population’s daily sodium intake from 3377mg (8g salt) to 2192mg (5g salt). This would require large reductions (12%-68%) in the mean sodium contents of food categories across the food supply. Conclusion The novel targets set in the NZ model could be used to drive reformulation of the entire food supply in order to help achieve the 5g/day goal. However some of the challenges of reducing intakes to WHO recommended levels through reformulation are highlighted, in that large and potentially unfeasible reductions would be needed. Further research should assess the feasibility, timeline and barriers to such reductions in the NZ food supply. Also, other strategies are likely to be needed in addition to reformulation in order to reach the WHO target by 2025.