12th IFDC 2017 Special issue –Sodium content in foods consumed by Argentines: Monitoring compliance with agreements, in labels and samples

Abstract

The initiative “Less salt, more life”, supported by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization of the United Nations (WHO), made recommendations to reduce the salt content in processed foods, and these have been taken very seriously by the Argentine public health authorities. The aims of this study were to i) collect data on sodium content from nutritional labels, ii) verify the compliance with agreements made by food companies on gradual reduction of sodium, and iii) select two significant food groups (bread, meat products) for chemical analysis of sodium content (AOAC 923.03 and 968.08). A database was developed using the sodium values declared on processed food labels. Samples of 21 types of breads and 15 meat products were analyzed. From the label information it was observed that there was a decrease in the declared sodium content only in the bread group between the two collection periods. The analytical values showed differences with the label values in all types of breads analyzed. The individual values of the same sample presented variability higher than ±20% established by Regulation Mercosur N° 46/03. In meat products, 62.5% of analyzed products exceeded the values declared on the label, although the difference was within the tolerance range of ± 20%.