Sara Lee plans to reduce salt in its top food brands

Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE: SLE) today announced it is committed to reducing salt an average of 20 percent over the next five years across its key categories of fresh bread, hot dogs, lunchmeat, breakfast foods and cooked sausage. This initiative will encompass Sara Lee’s top food brands, including Jimmy Dean^®, Ball Park^®, Hillshire Farm^® and Sara Lee^®. The effort builds on the successful salt reduction the company has already accomplished, which includes the launch of a line of lower-sodium lunchmeats earlier this year and sodium-reduced options of fresh bread products.

“This is in line with our broader wellness and nutrition strategy, which focuses on increasing the presence of positives, such as whole grains and lean protein. At the same time, we are reducing the amount of certain less desirable ingredients, such as trans fats and salt,” said CJ Fraleigh, executive vice president and chief executive officer, Sara Lee North American Retail and Foodservice. “We are excited to respond to consumers’ requests for lower-salt options, and plan to continue to provide great-tasting Sara Lee foods that they have come to know and love, but now with less salt.”

In recent national data (USDA, 2008), the average American consumes more than one-and-a-half times the maximum recommendation of 2300 milligrams per day of sodium, a standard set by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. To create the biggest impact on Americans’ eating habits, Sara Lee will initially focus on those categories with the greatest salt reduction opportunities - fresh breads, hot dogs, lunchmeat, breakfast foods and cooked sausage. These efforts are in addition to the 266,000 pounds of sodium the company has already removed from products, which is the amount of sodium found in about 665,000 pounds of salt. Sara Lee is taking a step-wise approach to salt reduction, considering factors such as food safety, consumer acceptance and cost to consumers. The company will reassess goals periodically.

Sara Lee’s pledge to reduce salt in its products by an average of 20 percent over the next five years is only one example of its wellness and nutrition initiatives. Sara Lee Fresh Ideas^™ Lower Sodium deli meats have earned the American Heart Association’s (AHA) heart check mark, and are made with premium, whole muscle meat with no fillers, are minimally processed and contain no artificial colors or flavors. Additionally, they have zero grams trans fat and comply with USDA standards for “healthy” foods. These have been available in grocery retailers where Sara Lee deli products have been sold since early 2009. In October 2009, Sara Lee, a member of the Healthy Weight Commitment (HWC), teamed with many food and beverage peer companies and non-governmental organizations to help reduce obesity by 2015. The HWC will promote the concept of energy balance – balancing calories consumed as part of a healthy diet with calories expended by physical activity – to people in the places where they spend much of their time: to consumers in the marketplace, to employees through workplace programs and to children in schools.

Source: Sara Lee