FDA under pressure to do something about salt in foods

The Food and Drug Administration in the United States is coming under increasing pressure to enforce tougher regulations on the amount of sodium in food.

The pressure is coming from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the watchdog consumer group the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) who both say that Americans are consuming too much salt.

The CSPI says that 150,000 lives could be saved in the U.S. annually if salt in processed foods and restaurant foods were reduced by half.

CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson says it is becoming increasingly hard for FDA officials to ignore the calls to action made in recent years by the medical community with regard to salt in food.

Jacobson says the average person in the United States consumes 4,000 mg of sodium each day, which is twice the recommended maximum and that excess promotes hypertension, stroke, heart attacks, kidney failure and early death.

The CSPI says research suggests that 77 percent of that salt comes from processed and restaurant food.

The AMA is also urging immediate action from the FDA to reduce excess salt in food and is calling for set strict limits on salt in processed foods to be imposed and more to be done to educate the public on the benefits of a low-sodium diet.

AMA Vice President for Science, Quality, and Public Health Dr. Stephen Havas, says the deaths attributed to excess salt consumption represent the equivalent of a jumbo jet with more than 400 passengers crashing every day of the year, every year.

Dr. Havas says excess sodium greatly increases the chance of developing hypertension, heart disease, and stroke and most Americans consume two to three times the amount of sodium that is healthy and the bulk of that comes from processed and restaurant foods.

He says Americans are often unwittingly consuming large amounts of salt because manufacturers and restaurants add it to food.

Dr. Havas says the U.S. should follow the lead of countries such as Finland and the UK who have taken action on salt with promising results.

He says the FDA must inform the public of the hazards of salt through better labeling and provide increased incentives for the industry to reduce the amount of salt added to food.

The AMA recommends the FDA develops regulatory measures to limit sodium in processed and restaurant foods and works with manufacturers toward a minimum of a 50 percent reduction in the amount of sodium in processed foods, fast food products and restaurant meals over the next decade.