BALTIMORE Public health officials, in cooperation with the Restaurant Association of Maryland and local politicians, introduced a program Wednesday aimed at lowering salt consumption among Baltimore residents.
The voluntary program has no specific reduction targets, and no legislation requiring reduction is planned for now. Instead, the plan is designed to increase public awareness about health risks associated with excessive sodium consumption and to encourage food providers, including restaurateurs, manufacturers and retailers, to reduce sodium in the items they produce and sell.
“We recognize and understand that sodium intake that exceeds recommended dietary guidelines is a public health concern for those consumers with cardiovascular disease and hypertension,” said Melvin Thompson, senior vice president of government affairs and public policy for the Restaurant Association of Maryland. “We believe that sodium reduction efforts must include both private and public sectors and address all food, including packaged, branded, private label, prepared foods, delis, bakeries, restaurants and institutional foodservice.”
Thompson noted that one challenge facing restaurant operators is that consumer demand for speed has led to an increased use of premade food items, which contain more salt than if they were prepared from scratch.
“Because these products are not made from scratch on site or custom-formulated for the foodservice establishment, it has been difficult, historically, for the end-user to control the sodium level of these products,” he said. “As an industry, we are working more closely with foodservice suppliers to encourage sodium reductions.”
According to recommendations by the Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board, young adults should not consumer more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day. The recommended intake level is set at 1,300 milligrams per day for adults ages 50 to 70, and 1,200 milligrams per day for adults 71 and over.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average daily intake of sodium in the United States in 2006 was 3,436 milligrams per person.
In New York, health department officials have been working on a voluntary sodium reduction program that would cut salt content in restaurant items and prepackaged foods by 20 percent over the next five years and 50 percent over 10 years.
The program, which is modeled after one already in place in the United Kingdom, is expected to launch this fall.
Contact Elissa Elan at [email protected].