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Feds Urged to Reduce Salt Levels in Food

Local health officials push for removing safe status of sodium

August 28, 2008

Salt Assault • How Much Sodium Is Too Much? It Depends • Study: Kids Getting Too Much Sodium • Nutrition Journal Hid Contributors' Ties to Food Industry • Medical Experts Call for FDA Action on Salt • Group Petitions FDA to Limit Salt in Processed Foods • "Salt Assault" Aggravates America's Health Woes • Salt Kills 150,000 a Year, CSPI Charges

With high-salt diets increasingly being recognized as a major cause of high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes, health officials from around the country have called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to press food manufacturers and restaurants to cut back on salt.

The comments were made in response to the FDA's request for public input on a petition filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) urging the agency to revoke the "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS, status of salt and to limit sodium levels in various food categories.

The comments included:

• Los Angeles County Department of Public Health's commissioner Jonathan Fielding, M.D., reported that the prevalence of diagnosed high blood pressure in the county increased from 18 percent in 1997 to 25 percent in 2005. "Action by the FDA and others is urgently needed to prevent unnecessary deaths and illnesses due to excessive salt in our diet," said Fielding. "We strongly urge that the FDA remove salt from the GRAS list and support efforts to implement a national program to reduce salt consumption."

• The National Association of County & City Health Officials, which represents approximately 2,850 local health departments, said it "strongly urges the Food and Drug Administration to examine carefully and thoroughly how its policies can reduce the sodium content of food and to act accordingly."

• Chicago's Commissioner of Health, Terry Mason, M.D., supported a 50-percent reduction in sodium over ten years. He endorsed public education campaigns by government and voluntary action by industry, but noted: "In the absence of voluntary sodium reduction, a regulatory approach would become necessary including the development of a mandatory national warning label system to inform consumers of high sodium content foods."

The Boston Public Health Commission's executive director, Barbara Ferrer, expressed her "deep concern about the harm being caused by excessive amounts of sodium in the American diet" and applauded the FDA for holding its hearing last November. She supported CSPI's proposals to revoke the GRAS status of salt and limit sodium levels in packaged foods.

The FDA's request for comments on salt reduction was a follow-up to the agency's November 2007 hearing on CSPI's salt petition.

At that time, New York City health department officials urged the FDA to require warning labels on high-sodium foods and said that "recommended maximum limits of sodium in processed foods must be established and formalized as recommended targets for industry." If industry did not achieve those targets, said the health officials, "a regulatory strategy addressing sodium content should be implemented."

New York City led the nation in phasing out trans fat from restaurants and requiring calorie labeling on the menus and menu boards of chain restaurants.

As another indication that local health officials are no longer waiting for the FDA to act on salt, Baltimore's city health department announced the convening of a Salt Task Force to "review and make recommendations to address excessive salt consumption in the city.

The task force is part of the city's efforts to prevent cardiovascular disease, especially among blacks, who have the highest rates of high blood pressure.

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