Salt laws fail taste test, warns expert
Laws to reduce the salt content of food products might not succeed because people can add extra salt if they do not like the taste.
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Professor Riette de Kock, from the Department of Food Science at the University of Pretoria, said of the 432 Tshwane residents who were offered low-sodium chicken stew in a research test last year, about 20% added salt.
She was speaking at the Salt Summit in Sandton last week. The summit was hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
She said many people "overcompensated" and added more salt than had been removed.
De Kock said no residents were informed that the chicken stock had very low salt levels, but they could taste the difference.
Food producers who manufacture bread, soups, gravy powders and margarine are required by law to reduce their products' salt content by 2016, and reduce it further by 2019.
Salt regulations were signed into law by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in 2012 after foods with significant salt content were linked to high blood pressure.
Research done at the School of Public Health at Wits University showed that lowering the salt content of bread and processed food could prevent 7300 fatal heart attacks a year and curb the number of strokes.
But trying to change South Africans' behaviour is no easy task.
Unilever vice-president of research and development Carla Hilhorst said consumers around the world do not buy food with labels that advertise "less salt".
She said they perceive such food as having less taste and will choose another brand.
Heart and Stroke Foundation CEO Vash Mungal-Singh said research showed that 22% of South Africans add salt to their food before tasting it.
South African men eat between 9g and 10g of salt a day and women about 7g on average, said MungalSingh.
The World Health Organisation recommends a maximum of 5g a day.
Department of Health director general Professor Melvyn Freeman said the salt-lowering regulations were designed to cause a general change in the population's salt intake, but individuals also needed to consciously cut back.
"We are up against a huge food industry," said Rhodes health journalism Professor Harry Dugmore. "A new fast-food restaurant opens every day."
Source: The Times
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