Regulations on Salt Intake and Manufactured Foods are Confusing Everywhere

Salt intake and the perils of consuming too much sodium have been all over the news this year. Recent studies have found that lowering the sodium in your diet could prevent stroke, hypertension, and heart attacks.

And since then the food manufacturing industry has been struggling to find a way to lower sodium levels in their foods without sacrificing taste. This can be hard to do for a variety of reasons.

But mainly, this is difficult because Americans want to minimize their salt intake without sacrificing the flavor they enjoy.

And apparently we aren't the only ones trying to strike a balance between flavor and function. In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recently made suggestions for the progressive reduction of sodium for manufactured foods that could go on indefinitely.

According to NICE, salt intake could be minimized by reducing the sodium in foods "by 5-10% a year," going on indefinitely because "most consumers don't even notice any difference in taste."

This statement, according to FoodManufacture UK, is not true at all.

In fact, for those who work in food manufacturing this approach to reducing sodium levels really doesn't work no matter what continent you live on. Anyone involved in manufacturing and/or distributing food items knows that there is indeed a cut-off point where consumers will notice that there isn't as much salty flavor in their food.

But even if they didn't, there's an important factor in the manufacture and preservation of foods that has been lost in the concern over salt intake - salt minimizes water activity in food, which in turn prevents spoilage and many bacterial invasions that can be dangerous for human beings.

Salt is also crucial when it comes to food structure, texture, and the chemical processes required of baking.

So what should food manufacturers do to minimize sodium levels and still create products that are both delicious and safe for human consumption?

For now, until guidelines are clearer, it's best to use sodium where it is needed, and minimize it if possible.

But don't get too caught up in cutting salt intake; consumers want taste before function, and creating a product that tastes bad isn't going to make anyone happy--least of which you with your bottom line.