FDF 'baffled' by calls for more industry action on salt
of Public Health (FPH)'s call for more food industry action in
cutting salt from processed foods.
Food and Drink Federation (FDF) director of communications Julian Hunt said that "the faculty's claim that industry cannot help the Food Standards Agency (FSA) meet its 2010 target is simply not true".
The FSA recently set a target of an average 6g of salt day for those aged 11 and over by 2010.
"Last year alone saw £7.4bn worth of products with lower levels of salt and we have pledged to work with FSA to help achieve its aim of reducing Britons' salt intake," he said.
"An FDF survey revealed that £15bn worth of products will have salt equivalence on pack by end of this year."
But the FPH, the UK's standard setting body for specialists in public health, believes that the FDF has not been accurate in its criticism.
"We have not said that the industry cannot help - in fact the opposite," an FPH spokesperson told FoodNavigator.
"We see them as extremely important partners in delivering salt reductions and ultimately good public health and we want them to use their influence to help meet the 2010 targets."
An FPH letter, which was sent to commercial companies including the FDF, said that widespread attention on public health issues such as high blood pressure and obesity, have led to a number of high-profile initiatives to improve nutrition and diet - most notably the campaign to reduce salt intake.
"Although we recognise that good progress has been made towards the target of 6g/day, the faculty is calling for continued concerted action across all sectors to ensure that this target is achieved, as well as real and lasting change in health through improved diets for children and adults in the UK," said the letter.
"We are therefore asking for your commitment to protecting and improving your customers' health - through reducing the salt content in the products sold in your supermarkets and manufactured on your behalf - and by using your influence to help producers meet the target of 6g/day."
The FDF however claims that the food industry is already tackling the issue of salt reduction head-on. It says that sodium levels in bread have been reduced by around 25 per cent since the late 1980s, and recently by a further 5 per cent in sliced bread.
Furthermore, a 33 per cent reduction in sodium in breakfast cereals has been achieved from 1998 to 2005. This means that breakfast cereals on average now contain less than 0.4g of sodium per 100g.
The new voluntary salt reduction targets are designed to help progression towards the target of bringing down the average UK salt intake to 6g a day. The FSA claims that in the UK, at least 26 million people are eating too much salt and that processed foods contribute about 75 per cent of salt intake.
But this issue is still hotly debated. Some health campaigners accused the government of backing down over implementing more stringent regulations, while some industry bodies, such as EUSalt, contend that consumers have been misled by regulatory guidelines based on ambiguous scientific evidence.
