Salt & Its Intake Causes a Strong debate In UK.

With the announcement of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), that the daily intake of salt should be limited to 6 g per day, and that the tinned foods should clearly mention the amount of salt content in their food labels. A debate on the issue has now picked up, with groups on either side.

A public awareness watchdog for Foodstuffs set up by the government of UK, has announced targets for reducing salt in a lot of food products. This is done for trying to reduce the consumption of daily salt, as excess of salt is associated with high BP, which might lead to heart attacks & strokes.

The FSA aimed at cutting down the salt intake from 10gms to 6gms by 2010, but final levels seem to be more curbed than the original levels, leaving the target to be 8gms by 2010. This move though is still not well accepted by campaigners in both sides. While the food industries chefs have defended the current targets the other groups feel that they are too soft and were bowing to pressure from the chefs, not taking seriously the effect of too much salt on health.

The targets released yesterday aims at cutting down salt levels in everyday foods such as bread, cereals, pizzas, ready meals and cakes and many manufacturers are concerned that reducing the amount of salt in their products will have an adverse effect on their taste and make them less appealing to consumers. But that has left the other group seems not to agree stating that over the years salt intake has been reduced and that the food industry is only delaying and trying to sabotage the process, as they were purely looking into the commercial interests and not on the public health.

While the salt campaign group CASH (Consensus Action on Salt and Health), believes and points out that the salt levels need to be further reduced and there can be no reason for not doing so, while the Food and drink federation feel that the current FSA’s target is much more realistic than before.