Sixteen food makers and restaurant chains have agreed to cut salt in products from ketchup to bacon as part of a city-led national push to trim Americans’ salt consumption by 20% over five years, Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to announce Monday.
The moves by the companies—including H.J. Heinz Co., Kraft Foods Inc., Starbucks and Subway—are part of a broad campaign to slash the salt content of the nation’s food supply. Salt is a common food preservative, but Americans consume nearly twice the recommended limit of sodium each day. That raises the odds of heart attack or stroke for millions, studies show.
The initiative, modeled after a British program, is the first of its kind in the U.S., but it is voluntary and food makers can choose which products they will cut back. Most that have signed onto the initiative haven’t agreed to the more sweeping changes across their whole lineups that officials want.
Kraft, for instance, will commit to cut salt only in bacon, telling the city that it ultimately hoped to “meet or exceed” targets in half its two dozen product categories, which account for 75% of the food it sells.
Mr. Bloomberg, who has also led campaigns against smoking and trans fats and pushed for calorie counts to be posted in restaurants, plans to meet with executives Monday at City Hall. “For the first time in this country, we have a broad group of public and private organizations coming together to make changes so people can have better control over the amount of salt they eat,” he said.
(Read More: Wall Street Journal)
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One Response
There is really no justification for these actions at this time; the epidemiologic evidence does not support this. What we really need is a large randomized controlled study on the effects of reduced salt intake.