Study backs mandatory move on salt

Health experts are urging the government to set mandatory salt limits for food, as
this would deliver "20 times the benefit" than the current voluntary approach.
A University of Queensland study has calculated the impact of different ways to
tackling the nation's unhealthy obsession with salt, a major contributor to
cardiovascular disease.
It assessed the current carrot approach - incentive-based programs which encourage
industry to voluntarily reduce salt levels in their food offerings - as well as the
big stick of imposing mandatory salt limits across the food supply.
"Programs to encourage the food industry to reduce salt in processed foods ... are
an excellent investment," said Dr Linda Cobiac, from the university's School of
Population Health.
She said the analysis showed the existing "incentive-based" approach had delivered
some cuts to salt in popular foods, and this would flow on to improved population
health and reduced health-sector spending over the longer term.
"However ... government intervention to make moderate salt limits mandatory for all
manufacturers could achieve 20 times the health benefits for the Australian
population," Dr Cobiac also said.
The study assessed the effectiveness of providing only dietary advice to those most
at risk - such as those with high blood pressure - alongside the current voluntary
approach and also the move to mandatory salt limits.
It found 610,000 years of healthy life could be gained if every Australian reduced
their intake to the recommended limit of no more than six grams of salt per day.
Dietary advice alone was found to reduce the nation's salt-related disease burden by
less than half of one per cent, and it was "not cost-effective".
The voluntary approach was cost effective and would cut ill health by almost one per
cent, which Dr Cobiac said was considerable.
But the mandatory move was found to reap an 18 per cent reduction in salt-related
ill health.
It was thought 94 per cent of Australian men and 64 per cent of women exceeded their
recommended daily salt intake, Dr Cobiac said, while further research showed salt
could be reduced in many products with little impact on taste.
"Food manufacturers have a responsibility to make money for their shareholders, but
they also have a responsibility to society," she said.
"If corporate responsibility fails, maybe there is an ethical justification for
government to step in and legislate."
The research is published online in the journal Heart.



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