Project

SHIFT-SALT: Towards healthy diets through salt reduction in soup and sauces

Sodium reduction for improved health will be directly addressed by SHIFT-SALT. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a daily sodium intake of about 2 g per day. This is equivalent to about 5 g of salt per day. The Dutch/European diet is characterized as having a high salt content (7 to 12 g salt or 2.8 g to 5.12 g sodium, consumed per day per capita, EU Commission). This far exceeds the recommended daily intake of 5 g salt (or 2 g sodium) per day for an average person. As a direct result of this high sodium diet, cardiovascular and renal diseases remain the most prevalent cause of death in the EU community, followed by specific type of cancers. It is estimated that a 35% salt reduction in Dutch processed food content will lead to about 300,000 less cases of cardiovascular (CVD) events (myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and cerebrovascular accidents), representing a total of 12% reduction.

SHIFT-SALT provides new innovations to achieve a salt reduced diet. SHIFT-SALT will (1) deliver technical solutions for sodium reduction, (2) understand determinants and barriers for consumer choice for sodium reduced products in real food environments such as supermarkets, and (3) identify key parameters to increase the volume of reduced sodium products in the retail space via practical solutions by industrial partners throughout the chain. SHIFT-SALT will focus on sodium reduction in soups and sauces, both categories being a substantial part of the European staple food.

Publications