Reducing Salt in Foods is divided into three parts and discusses the major issues concerned with salt reduction and how it may be achieved.

Part One reviews the key health issues driving efforts to reduce salt, government action regarding salt reduction and the implications of salt labelling. Consumer perception of salt and views on salt reduction and are also discussed.

Part Two focuses on the technological, microbiological and sensory functions of salt and strategies that can be taken to reduce salt.

Part Three outlines strategies which have been taken to reduce salt in particular food groups: meat and poultry, seafood, bread, snack foods, dairy products and canned foods.

Ordering Information

Contents

Part 1: Dietary Salt, Health and the Consumer

Dietary salt intake: sources and targets for reduction

• Intakes of sodium
• Recommendations for intake
• Targets for reduction

Dietary salt, high blood pressure and other harmful effects on health

• Definition of hypertension
• Benefits of lowering blood pressure in the ‘normal age’
• Salt and blood pressure
• Mechanisms by which salt raises blood pressure
• Salt and cardiovascular mortality
• Salt and other harmful effects
• Other dietary and lifestyle factors in the development of hypertension

Health issues relating to monosodium glutamate use in the diet

• Glutamate and MSG in food
• Glutamate, MSG and the nervous system
• Adverse reactions to MSG
• Commentary on likely future trends

Dietary salt and flavour: mechanisms of taste reception and physiological controls

• Overview of perception and intake of sodium chloride
• Transduction of sodium by taste receptor cells
• Brain areas activated by salty taste
• Physiological factors that influence salt intake
• Implications for food product development

Dietary salt and the consumer: reported consumption and awareness of associated health risks

• Changing consumer trends
• Understanding the consumer and the salt issue
• A consumer perspective
• Taking responsibility – implications for policy and food product development

Consumer responses to low-salt food products

• Importance of determining consumer responses to low salt food products
• Methods to determine consumer responses to low-salt food products
• Acceptability of low-salt food products and implications for food product development

Improving the labelling of the salt content of foods

• What purpose does nutrition labelling serve and what are its limits? The relationship between nutrition labelling and consumer health
• The current EU/UK nutrition labelling format
• How are the nutrient values arrived at?
• Current codex guidelines on nutrition labelling
• What changes may occur to the EU legislative framework on salt labelling?
• Current voluntary nutrition labelling
• Guideline daily amounts (GDAs)
• Consumer use of nutrition labelling
• EUFIC (the European Food Information Council) findings (EUFIC 2004)
• Non governmental organisation’s view on nutrition labelling
• Why traffic light labelling is not accepted by the majority of food manufacturers
• FSA guidance on nutrition claims
• Codex guidelines on claims
• Proposed EU regulation on health and nutrition claims

Part 2: Strategies for Salt Reduction in Food Products

Technological functions of salt in food products

• Sensory effects of salt
• Processing and related properties of salt
• Preservative effects of salt

Microbial issues in reducing salt in food products

• Replacement of salt with other compounds used to increase osmotic pressure
• Methods to reduce salt without compromising microbial safety
• Techniques used to assess the effect of salt reduction on the safety and quality of food

Sensory issues in reducing salt in food products

• The role of salt in food
• The basis of flavour
• Contribution of salt to flavour
• Challenges in reducing salt
• Main approaches to salt reduction

The use of bitter blockers to replace salt in food products

• The potential for taste modifiers in healthy food products
• Why replace salt in foods?
• The science of taste perception
• Identifying compounds that decrease the perception of bitterness

Part 3: Reducing Salt in Particular Foods

Reducing salt in meat and poultry products

• Functions of salt in meat and poultry products
• Salt content in meat and poultry products
• Strategies for salt reduction in meat and poultry products

Reducing salt in seafood products

• Consumption of seafood products
• Technological functions of salt in seafood
• Current salt intake from seafood
• Salt reduction in seafood
• Strategies for lowering salt content in seafood
• Recommendations
• The way forward

Reducing salt in bread and other baked products

• The technological functions of salt in the processing of baked products
• Control of water activity in baked products
• Other sodium salts in baked products
• Levels of salt in baked products and targets for reduction
• Methods to reduce salt and sodium levels while retaining quality and safety

Reducing salt in snack products

• Snack foods
• Salt and health
• Snack food manufacture
• Salt reduction in snacks

Reducing salt in cheese and dairy spreads

• Manufacture and salting of cheese and table spreads
• Functions of salt in cheese and dairy spreads
• The effects of NaC1 on casein hydration
• Effect of NaC1 on cheese functionality
• Approaches to reduce the salt content of cheese products and table spreads

Reducing salt in canned foods

• Typical levels of salt in products and targets for reduction
• Methods to reduce salt levels while retaining quality and safety
• Pre-reduction consumer/sensory research
• Salt reduction in canned soup
• Collaborative work within the industry – Project Neptune
• Example of reduced sodium/Sugar Baked Beans

Index

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