As part of the Department of Health Responsibility Deal Food Network, chaired by Susan Jebb, a new set of targets have been published today that challenge industry to reduce the amount of salt in 76 categories of food by 2017. These replace the previous targets set for 2012. A new set of targets for the out of home sector covering the 10 most popular high street dishes and children’s meals have also been announced.
Work on salt reduction has been ongoing for a number of years, and intakes have already been reduced by 15 per cent. However, at 8.1g/d, the average adult salt intake is still higher than the maximum target daily intake of 6g/d for adults (children’s intakes should be lower).