Reducing salt in bread to protect from cardiovascular disease in Morocco

In January 2020, Abdelfettah Derouiche presented recent salt reduction research from Morocco at the  European Days of the French Society of Cardiology Congress in Paris. In his presentation he reflected on a five-year awareness raising campaign that aimed to encourage bakeries to reduce the amount of sodium chloride used when making white bread, along with improving nutritional knowledge and practices related to salt. Around 1218 bakeries in Morocco took part in this study and chemical analysis of the bread was measured from 160 bakeries. They found that over the 5-year period sodium chloride used in bread decreased by 26% (17.4g/kg in 2011 to 13.1g/kg in 2016). Mr Derouiche concluded that their study highlights the effectiveness of an awareness raising campaign to reduce salt use in bread, and that this could have positive effects on the burden of cardiovascular disease in Morocco. To read more, click here