UK Salt Intake Drops to 8.1g Per Day, Further Reduction Required

Studies suggest that this reduction in average daily salt intake, through the reduction it has on blood pressure, will prevent approximately 20,000 strokes, heart attacks and heart failure, 8,500 of which are fatal, in the UK every year.

22 Jun 2012 --- The UK Department of Health has announced that, since the start of the UK’s salt reduction policy ten years ago, salt intake has fallen in adults from 9.5g to 8.1 g per day, i.e. approximately 1.5 g per person, per day. This is now the lowest salt intake of any developed country in the world. Studies suggest that this reduction in average daily salt intake, through the reduction it has on blood pressure, will prevent approximately 20,000 strokes, heart attacks and heart failure, 8,500 of which are fatal, in the UK every year. This provides huge cost savings to the NHS. If we achieved the 6g target, an estimated 17,000 lives a year would be saved.

Graham MacGregor, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Wolfson Institute and Chairman of Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) comments: “This one and a half gram reduction in salt intake shows progress is happening, but there is still a very long way to go. Our salt intakes have come down thanks to a clear set of voluntary salt targets that were developed by CASH and the Food Standards Agency, which have largely been achieved by the responsible food manufacturers.

“Unfortunately, the catering industry (restaurants, cafes, takeaways etc), against our advice, have largely been ignored by the salt reduction programme. We urge catering companies to reduce the unnecessarily high amount of salt they add to our food. Furthermore, the Department of Health has failed to set further salt targets for the whole of the food industry. This is essential for the success of the programme as it provides a ‘level playing field’, whereby all food companies make gradual reductions in line with each other.

“The aim must be to get salt intake to below the maximum recommended intake of 6g per day in order to save the maximum number of lives. This requires the whole food industry to recognise the importance of salt reduction”

Katharine Jenner, Campaign Director of CASH comments: “We would like to congratulate those companies who have made reductions in the amount of salt they add to our food. However it is not surprising we are still eating much more than the recommended 6g salt a day (men 9.3g a day, women 6.8g a day). If you eat out, you could find you are still consuming huge amounts of salt. For instance, a breakfast egg and bacon roll, steak pie for lunch, a snack of a blueberry muffin and pepperoni pizza for dinner could add up to over 13g when eating out, compared to just over 5g when bought from a supermarket.

“The lack of clear labelling is still is a massive problem for consumers who do want to lower their salt intake. There are huge variations of salt in our food; however without nutritional information for salt on restaurant and fast food menus, it is impossible to make a healthy choice. The Department of Health needs to take much more action on salt reduction, the single most cost-effective public health policy.”