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The product, entitled SALboosT, could therefore provide manufacturers with a practical means of responding to growing consumer concern over salt intake.
Danisco believes that its SALboosT product compensates for the flavour lost through salt reduction by activating the salt receptors on the tongue.
Containing just 4 per cent salt, Danisco claimed that its new ingredient has a significant flavour impact at a low dosage, and that it performs well in cooking sauces, pie fillings, soups, savoury biscuits, puff pastry, bread and salted fat spreads.
"The overall flavour impression is longer lasting, more rounded and generally more savoury," said the company.
Numerous public health campaigns have been drawing increasing attention to the perceived health risks associated with excessive salt consumption. The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) for example claims that at least 26 million Britons are eating too much salt, and that processed foods contribute about 75 per cent of salt intake.
Scientists such as Graham MacGregor, chairman of WASH - World Action on Salt and Health - are convinced that high salt intake is responsible for increasing blood pressure (hypertension), a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) - a disease that causes almost 50 per cent of deaths in Europe.
CVD is reported to cost the EU economy an estimated €169bn ($202bn) per year.Some 75 per cent of salt consumed in the industrialised world comes from processed food. All this has led to growing pressure on food manufacturers to cut down on salt.
The problem however is that salt performs numerous essential functions in processing. In processed meat products, for example, salt is involved in activating proteins to increase water-binding activity, improves the binding and textural properties of proteins, helps with the formation of stable batters with fat, and also extends shelf-life with its anti-microbacterial effects.
Food makers looking to cut out salt must at the same time therefore look for adequate replacements.
