NYC Salt Reduction Proposal
I read 2 (1&2) articles on the internet about something the government is talking about.
The City Department of Health is asking food manufactures to voluntarily reduce the amount of salts in food products like canned vegetables/soups, cereals, chips, fast-foods, and pizza.
NY Health Commissioner Thomas Farley told the Daily News, "If they want more salt, they can put it on. They can't take salt out of the food they buy."
Companies that adhere to the plan will have to reduce %25 of salt they put in packaged and restaurant foods by the end of a 5 year period. The deadline for the changes will be 2014.
The Department leads the National Salt Reduction Initiative and wants to decrease the populations salt intake by %20 percent in the next five years.
The Daily News wrote that people get %80 of their daily sodium from foods they buy and %20 from the salt they keep in their homes.
A Spokeswoman for the salt institute, Lori Roman told the Daily News, "[...] Salt reduction is based on a false notion that there is sufficient evidence to connect salt consumption with cardiovascular disease."
It seems that the New York City's food market and government could affect nationwide markets since sellers depend on the city's business but have buyers in many other places.
According to the Department the goals were conceived after months of meetings between health organizations and industry leaders. NYT says in the past when the City encouraged restaurants to voluntarily reduce trans fats they ended up passing a law to ban them.
Someone from A&P said the criteria was realistic enough for suppliers to adhere to it. Subway, the sandwich place, told the NYT it would comply with the suggested guidelines.
The plan was inspired by other countries like the United Kingdom which has reduced salt in some products by %40 or more and Canada, Australia, Finland, Ireland, and New Zealand who have launched large scale intiatives.
The Department says some people can ingest the recommended daily amount of salt in one meal - something like a deli sandwich of sliced meats.
The federal government thinks that 2,300 milligrams, or a teaspoon, a day is the most a person should ingest. But the average adult in this country consumes about 3,400 milligrams a day according to an unknown source.
Chor-San Khoo, vice president for global nutrition and health at the Campbell Soup Company told the NYTs that sodium reduction does not always follow prescribed time or progress. NYTs says Campbell already made significant reductions in a lot of its canned soups and V8 beverages.
The NYTs says other companies will be reducing salt ingredients by similar amounts and timelines but not signing on to the government initiative.