Reduce Salt for Better Health

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PDF printable version of Reduce Salt for Better Health (PDF 345 KB)

25 March 2012

Countries around the world are joining forces to highlight the role too much salt plays in the development of many diet-related diseases.

On the eve of World Salt Awareness Week. Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Catherine King, is highlighting the vital role the food industry needs to play to achieve lower salt intake in the daily diet of the Australian public.

“As a population, Australians consume too much sodium – primarily in the form of salt,” Ms King said.

“The National Health and Medical Research Council recommends that Australian adults limit their intake of salt to no more than 6 grams (or 1½ teaspoons) a day but Australians continue to consume too much salt which can lead to high blood pressure, heart attack, kidney disease and stroke.

“Many Australians don’t realise that popular foods such as bread, processed meats, breakfast cereals, cheese and commercially-produced condiments and sauces are some of the largest contributors to salt intakes in Australia.

“With processed foods now forming such a large part of the Australian diet, the influence of manufacturers and retailers over what we eat has never been greater.

“This is where the role of the Food and Health Dialogue is so important,” Ms King said.

“The Dialogue is a collective of government, consumers, public health and food industry representatives, which I chair, and we have continued to make significant gains in reducing the amount of sodium in the Australian food supply.

“As a result of the work of the Dialogue, reformulation within the bread sector alone will remove approximately 1000 tonnes of salt from the Australian food supply every year.

“Most recently, the Dialogue has engaged the savoury pie sector and they have agreed to reduce the sodium content of wet pies with more than 400mg sodium and dry pies with more than 500mg sodium by 10% over two years.

This has been another significant step in addressing sodium intake.

"Since it was announced formally in October 2009, the Dialogue has negotiated sodium (a key component of dietary salt) reduction targets with industry for bread, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals and simmer sauces, processed meats, soups and savoury pies. Saturated fat targets have also been agreed for processed meats and will be considered for savoury pies in 2013," Ms King said.

Dr Lyn Roberts, CEO of the National Heart Foundation of Australia and a member of the Dialogue said today:

“The Food and Health Dialogue is a critically important initiative with the potential to prevent thousands of premature, diet-related deaths each year from chronic diseases such as heart attack and stroke. While there is still a long way to go, the potential public health impact of food reformulation – particularly by reducing salt in the food supply – is enormous.”

Speaking on behalf of the Public Health Association of Australia, CEO Michael Moore said the important achievement of the Dialogue is the particular foods that are being tackled tend to be those that are eaten by vulnerable groups in our society.

"It is important no just what we do now, but that we develop an ongoing process of continual improvement in our food supply and this will only happen with industry and health groups working together,” he said.

“Ultimately though consumers must take responsibility for their dietary choices and I would encourage every Australian to consider their sodium intake for the health of themselves and their families,” Ms King said.

For more information, please contact the Parliamentary Secretary’s office on 02 6277 4230