MicroSalt is calling on all food manufacturers and FMCG brands to step up their efforts to reduce salt and sodium consumption. The UK government effectively passed the responsibility to reduce sodium consumption on to the food manufacturing industry and MicroSalt believes there hasn’t been a better time for food producers to reformulate recipes to reduce sodium.
The UK government set out 6 grams per day of salt intake by 2024 in salt reduction targets established in 2019. It now appears that the UK will miss these targets, resulting in unnecessary incidents of cardiovascular disease(s) and the continued drain of healthcare expenses on the economy.
Research by Queen Mary University of London and published in the Journal of Hypertension found the discontinuation of the UK government’s salt reduction programme resulted in higher sodium consumption and increased deaths.
That research concluded that if efforts to reduce sodium before 2014 were continued, they would have prevented over 38,000 deaths from strokes and heart disease in just a 4-year period, of which 24,000 would have been premature.
Each year, cardiovascular disease costs the UK £19 billion – if the average salt intake was reduced by one gram per day, it has been estimated that 4,147 lives and £288 million would be saved each year in the UK. As a nation, the UK consumes 183 million kilograms of salt each year, and 70 per cent. of the typical person’s sodium intake is contained in processed foods.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set a target of reducing global sodium intake by 30% by 2025, which it estimates will save 7 million lives by 2030. WHO research also found that every US$1 spent on sodium reduction translates to US$12 in healthcare cost savings for treating cardiovascular disease.
Having struggled with the constraints of taste impairment and its own health-related concerns using salt substitutes like Potassium Chloride, combined with a lack of stringent regulations, the food industry hasn’t had the tools to implement the necessary recipe reformulations to reduce daily sodium intake until the advent of MicroSalt.
With the introduction of MicroSalt, reformulation can be accomplished on a quicker and simpler timeline because it doesn’t use salt substitutes such as potassium chloride, but still delivers the same salty taste as traditional salt through micron-sized salt crystals. Its
patented low sodium salt technology provided the same functionality across any type of salt (mined, sea, lake, etc.) without sacrificing taste.
Judith Batchelar OBE, Non-Executive Chair of MicroSalt, comments:
“There is a long-established link between salt and high blood pressure. The knock-on effects of having high blood pressure range far and wide, and the cost to the National Health Service (NHS) of a diet high in salt shouldn’t be underestimated.”
“We’re on the fifth round of UK government salt reduction targets now, and we’re not going to hit them. Progress in the first few years was pretty good and salt has come down in the diet, but not anywhere near where it needs to be.
“The target in the UK is 6 grams of salt per day. At the moment, the average is 8.4 grams per day. For men, it’s even higher, at over 9 grams per day, and for women, it’s about 7.5 grams per day. We are nowhere near hitting the UK government’s salt consumption target.
“From about 2016 onwards, the reduction of salt in foods really has hit a bit of a brick wall and we’ve run out of road. That’s why MicroSalt’s technology and MicroSalt’s product are such a game changer.
“Most of that salt in people’s diets comes from prepared foods that they’ve purchased, not from salts that they add at home when they’re cooking, or from salts that they add at the table. There is a real business-to-business opportunity to provide an ingredient that enables food manufacturers to reduce salt levels.
“MicroSalt does work, and it does work universally in different products. The UK government sets salt targets by each individual food category. There are 84 different categories of food, all of which have their own salt target. You will find MicroSalt works in most of those product categories and in different applications.”
Judith Batchelar OBE, has over 35 years’ experience in the UK food industry, having previously served as a Director of Sainsbury and Safeway. Judith is a biochemist, nutritionist and has an Honorary Doctorate in Agriculture from Harper Adams University. As a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology and the President of the British Nutrition Foundation, she is highly respected in the sector. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce. In 2015, Judith was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to farming and the food industry.
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