The Healthfulness of the US Packaged Food and Beverage Supply: A Cross-Sectional Study
Baldridge A et al conducted a cross-sectional analysis of US packaged food and beverage supply in 2018 using data from Label Insight’s Open Data, which represents over 80% of the all products over the past 3 years. Nutrition data from over 230,000 products was obtained and healthfulness was assessed by Health Star Rating (HSR) and […]
Sodium and Potassium Intake Assessed by Spot and 24-h Urine in the Population-Based Tromsø Study 2015–2016
Meyer H et al investigated the validity of spot urine measures in the Norwegian based Tromsø study. They collected 24-hour urine and spot urine samples from 475 men and women who participated in the population-based study between 2015 and 2016, comparing 24-hour urine measures with spot-urine using three different equations (INTERSALT (with potassium), Toft and […]
Monitoring Sodium Content in Processed Foods in Argentina 2017-2018: Compliance with National Legislation and Regional Targets
Published in Nutrients in June, Allemandi L et al reported on an evaluation of compliance of Argentinean processed foods with national and regional sodium targets. Data were collected on 3674 food products from four stores between August 2017 and May 2018. 864 products could be compared to the Argentinean sodium targets, which were set under […]
Mean Dietary Salt Intake in Vanuatu: A Population Survey of 755 Participants on Efate Island
A study in Nutrients by Paterson K et al estimated mean population salt intake in a sub-national sample in Vanuatu. Mean salt intake was estimated to be 7.2 g/day from spot urine samples (n=483), and 5.9 g/day from 24-h urine samples (n=71). Men had higher salt intakes than women, based on spot urine samples. Due […]
The Science of Salt: Updating the evidence on global estimates of salt intake
A recent review by Thout SR et al aimed to update the evidence on population salt intake globally, following the 2010 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Studies that measured salt intake using 24-hour urine collection in a nationally representative sample between January 2011 and September 2018 were included. Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria, […]
Packaged foods on the Mexican market found to be high in sodium
Nieto C et al conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate how many products on the Mexican market met sodium benchmark targets. Three benchmark targets were compared against; targets set by the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency (UK FSA), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the Mexican Commission for the Protection of Health Risks (COFEPRIS). […]
Costa Ricans consuming almost twice the recommended amount of salt
Costa Ricans consume almost double the WHO salt recommendations. The Costa Rican Institute for Research and Education in Nutrition and Health (Incenses) have coordinated two international events to raise awareness of the issue. In February, a workshop “Application of social marketing in the creation of capacities and the reduction of salt intake in Latin America: […]
Mid-term evaluation of Malaysia’s National Salt Reduction Strategy
In November last year, with support from WHO, Kathy and Jacqui from the George Institute supported a Ministry of Health workshop in Malaysia to understand the progress of the national salt reduction strategy to date, with a view to providing recommendations for strengthening implementation and monitoring of the strategy in the next two years. The […]
Sodium Levels in Packaged Foods Sold in 14 Latin American and Caribbean Countries: A Food Label Analysis
In 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries, Arcand et al investigated the sodium content of 12 packaged food categories, and determined that 82% of foods were already meeting the regional target at baseline, and almost half were already meeting the lower target. More than 90% of products were already meeting the targets for uncooked pasta and […]
Sodium Levels of Processed Meat in Australia: Supermarket Survey Data from 2010 to 2017
A study by Sparks et al assessed the sodium levels of processed meat products in Australian supermarkets and changes over time. Overall, they found a reduction in sodium levels in processed meats for which the government had established voluntary sodium target’s under the Food and Health Dialogue, and no change for other processed meats. They determined […]