Abstract
Processed foods are recognized as a major contributor to high dietary sodium intake, associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Different public health actions are being introduced to reduce sodium content in processed foods and sodium intake in general. A gradual reduction of sodium content in processed foods was proposed in Slovenia, but monitoring sodium content in the food supply is essential to evaluate the progress. Our primary objective was to test a new approach for assessing the sales-weighted average sodium content of prepacked foods on the market. We show that a combination of 12-month food sales data provided by food retailers covering the majority of the national market and a comprehensive food composition database compiled using food labelling data represent a robust and cost-effective approach to assessing the sales-weighted average sodium content of prepacked foods. Food categories with the highest sodium content were processed meats (particularly dry cured meat), ready meals (especially frozen pizza) and cheese. The reported results show that in most investigated food categories, market leaders in the Slovenian market have lower sodium contents than the category average. The proposed method represents an excellent tool for monitoring sodium content in the food supply.
Highlights
A high dietary sodium intake is closely related to elevated blood pressure (BP), which is a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD)
12-month, country-wide sales data for each product included in the database (n = 5,104), we calculated average sodium content in available prepacked foods (SCA) and in sold prepacked foods (SCS) for selected food categories
We have shown that a combination of 12-month food sales data provided by food retailers covering the majority of the national market and a comprehensive food composition database compiled using food labelling data represent a robust and cost-effective approach to assess the sales-weighted average sodium content of prepacked foods
Summary
A high dietary sodium intake is closely related to elevated blood pressure (BP), which is a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Extensive evidence shows a consistently direct relationship between BP and salt/sodium intake [6,7]. In line with this evidence, several countries and health organizations have developed sodium-reduction recommendations. They have provided evidence-based appraisals of how this might be achieved in specific settings [8,9,10,11,12,13]. Daily salt intake in most countries varies between 9 and 12 g [14], which is well above WHO’s recommendations [15] and represents a major public health concern [16]
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