FDA plans to limit amount of salt allowed in processed foods for health reasons

[Guest guest]

About time..........

By Lyndsey Layton

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The Food and Drug Administration is planning an unprecedented effort to

gradually reduce the salt consumed each day by Americans, saying that less

sodium in everything from soup to nuts would prevent thousands of deaths

from hypertension and heart disease. The initiative, to be launched this

year, would eventually lead to the first legal limits on the amount of salt

allowed in food products.

The government intends to work with the food industry and health experts to

reduce sodium gradually over a period of years to adjust the American palate

to a less salty diet, according to FDA sources, who spoke on condition of

anonymity because the initiative had not been formally announced.

Officials have not determined the salt limits. In a complicated undertaking,

the FDA would analyze the salt in spaghetti sauces, breads and thousands of

other products that make up the $600 billion food and beverage market,

sources said. Working with food manufacturers, the government would set

limits for salt in these categories, designed to gradually ratchet down

sodium consumption. The changes would be calibrated so that consumers barely

notice the modification.

The legal limits would be open to public comment, but administration

officials do not think they need additional authority from Congress.

" This is a 10-year program, " one source said. " This is not rolling off a

log. We're talking about a comprehensive phase-down of a widely used

ingredient. We're talking about embedded tastes in a whole generation of

people. "

The FDA, which regulates most processed foods, would be joined in the effort

by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees meat and poultry.

Currently, manufacturers can use as much salt as they like in products

because under federal standards, it falls into the category deemed

" generally recognized as safe. " Foodmakers are merely required to report the

amount on nutrition labels.

But for the past 30 years, health officials have grown increasingly alarmed

as salt intake has increased with the explosion in processed foods and

restaurant meals. Most adults consume about twice the government's daily

recommended limit, according to the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention.

Until now, the government has pushed the food industry to voluntarily reduce

salt and tried to educate consumers about the dangers of excessive sodium.

But in a study to be released Wednesday, an expert panel convened by the

Institute of Medicine concludes that those measures have failed. The panel

will recommend that the government take action, according to sources

familiar with the findings.

Although the specifics of the government's plans have not been made public,

the food industry has been bracing for a federal initiative.

" We're working on it voluntarily already, " said Musiker, senior

manager of science policy, nutrition and health at the Grocery Manufacturers

Association. In recent months, Conagra, Pepsico, Kraft Foods, General Mills,

Sara Lee and others have announced that they would reduce sodium in many of

their products. Pepsico has developed a new shape for sodium chloride

crystals that the company hopes will allow it to reduce salt by 25 percent

in its Lay's Classic potato chips.

Morton Satin, director for technical and regulatory affairs at the Salt

Institute, which represents salt producers, said regulation " would be a

disaster for the public. " He said that the science regarding sodium is

unclear and that consumption does not necessarily lead to health problems.

" If you consume a lot of salt, you also get rid of a lot of salt -- it

doesn't mean it's an excess, " he said. " I want to make sure they're basing

this on everything that is in the scientific literature, so we don't end up

being guinea pigs because someone thinks they're doing something good. "

son of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which

first petitioned the FDA to regulate sodium in 1978, said voluntary efforts

by industry are laudable, " but they could change their minds tomorrow. . . .

Limiting sodium might be the single most important thing the FDA can to do

to promote health. "

In January, New York City launched a campaign against salt, urging food

manufacturers and chain restaurants to voluntarily reduce sodium by 25

percent in their products nationwide over the next five years. Baltimore,

Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and the District are among a list of cities

supporting the New York initiative.

A recent study by researchers at Columbia and Stanford universities and the

University of California at San Francisco found that cutting salt intake by

3 grams a day could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks, strokes and

cases of heart disease.

Most salt eaten by Americans -- 77 percent -- comes from processed foods,

making it difficult for consumers to limit salt to healthy levels, experts

say.

" We can't just rely on the individual to do something, " said Cheryl

, an epidemiologist at the s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public

Health who served on the Institute of Medicine committee. " Food

manufacturers have to reduce the amount of sodium in foods. "

Reducing salt across the food supply will be a massive and technically

challenging project. Although many artificial sweeteners have been

discovered, there is no salt substitute.

Humans have an innate taste for salt, which is needed for some basic

biological functions. But beyond flavor, salt is also used as a preservative

to inhibit microbial growth; it gives texture and structure to certain

foods; and it helps leaven and brown baked goods.

K. Beauchamp, a psychobiologist and director of the Monell Chemical

Senses Center in Philadelphia, said salt also provides another, less

understood quality. " It gives something that food people refer to as

'mouthfeel,' " said Beauchamp, who also served on the Institutes of Medicine

committee. " For some soups, for instance, it's not just the salty taste --

sodium makes the soup feel thicker. "

Policymakers will have to decide whether to exempt inherently salty foods,

such as pickles, while mandating changes in other products to reduce the

overall sodium levels in the food supply.

Above all, government officials and food industry executives say, a product

with reduced salt must still taste good, or it will flop in the marketplace,

as evidenced by several low-sodium products that had abysmal sales.

" Historically, consumers have found low-sodium products haven't been of the

quality that's expected, " said Todd Abraham, senior vice president of

research and nutrition for Kraft Foods. " We're all trying to maintain the

delicious quality of the product but one that consumers recognize as

healthier. "