Can We Finally Make Progress on Sodium Intake?
Can We Finally Make Progress on Sodium Intake?
The NSRI commitment to target setting and monitoring industry progress toward achievement of these targets required the development of two unique databases because existing US food databases were insufficient. The USDA's National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference is used extensively for nutritional research and is the basis for most US food composition databases; however, for many items information is not available by brand, and it is not updated frequently enough to track industry reformulation. Furthermore, the NSRI needed to know the sales volume of those products because large reductions in the sodium content of products with relatively low sales likely would have little influence on population intake, whereas modest reductions in high volume sales products could have remarkable impact.
The NSRI Packaged Food Database was created by linking national sales and nutrition information to fill this need. Preliminary food categories, such as "breads and rolls" and "canned soup," were identified and nutrition label information was linked for products that accounted for the top 80% of sales in each category. Similarly, the NSRI Restaurant Food Database was created, which includes publicly available nutrition data based on available information from the fifty largest quick-service restaurants, merged with market share data.
The NSRI developed sodium targets for the years 2012 and 2014 for 62 packaged food and 25 restaurant food categories through an iterative process with the food industry that included a review of the range and distribution of existing sodium levels within categories and consideration of the challenges of sodium reduction in each category (Figure 1). Most of the targets are already being met by one or more widely consumed products. Once established, the NSRI asked food companies to publicly commit to meeting targets and the commitments are posted online. A company commitment to a packaged food category target indicates that a company's overall salesweighted mean sodium level will meet the relevant category target, even if some individual products do not.
(Enlarge Image)
Figure 1.
Distribution of sodium levels in food products within a single category, with reduction targets for 2012 and 2014.
For restaurants, in addition to the food category targets, a maximum sodium level target was established for all items. Restaurants prepare food in servings as intended to be consumed, and 17% of items in the restaurant database contained more than 1500 milligrams of sodium, the recommended daily limit that applies to about half of all adults.
To monitor sodium consumption, in 2010 the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene conducted the first US population survey of sodium intake through 24-hour urine collection and analysis. Based on preliminary results from a representative sample of more than 1700 adult New Yorkers, mean sodium intake was 3150 milligrams per day. The agency plans to repeat this study after sodium levels in foods have been reduced.
Initiative Monitoring and Target Setting
The NSRI commitment to target setting and monitoring industry progress toward achievement of these targets required the development of two unique databases because existing US food databases were insufficient. The USDA's National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference is used extensively for nutritional research and is the basis for most US food composition databases; however, for many items information is not available by brand, and it is not updated frequently enough to track industry reformulation. Furthermore, the NSRI needed to know the sales volume of those products because large reductions in the sodium content of products with relatively low sales likely would have little influence on population intake, whereas modest reductions in high volume sales products could have remarkable impact.
The NSRI Packaged Food Database was created by linking national sales and nutrition information to fill this need. Preliminary food categories, such as "breads and rolls" and "canned soup," were identified and nutrition label information was linked for products that accounted for the top 80% of sales in each category. Similarly, the NSRI Restaurant Food Database was created, which includes publicly available nutrition data based on available information from the fifty largest quick-service restaurants, merged with market share data.
The NSRI developed sodium targets for the years 2012 and 2014 for 62 packaged food and 25 restaurant food categories through an iterative process with the food industry that included a review of the range and distribution of existing sodium levels within categories and consideration of the challenges of sodium reduction in each category (Figure 1). Most of the targets are already being met by one or more widely consumed products. Once established, the NSRI asked food companies to publicly commit to meeting targets and the commitments are posted online. A company commitment to a packaged food category target indicates that a company's overall salesweighted mean sodium level will meet the relevant category target, even if some individual products do not.
(Enlarge Image)
Figure 1.
Distribution of sodium levels in food products within a single category, with reduction targets for 2012 and 2014.
For restaurants, in addition to the food category targets, a maximum sodium level target was established for all items. Restaurants prepare food in servings as intended to be consumed, and 17% of items in the restaurant database contained more than 1500 milligrams of sodium, the recommended daily limit that applies to about half of all adults.
To monitor sodium consumption, in 2010 the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene conducted the first US population survey of sodium intake through 24-hour urine collection and analysis. Based on preliminary results from a representative sample of more than 1700 adult New Yorkers, mean sodium intake was 3150 milligrams per day. The agency plans to repeat this study after sodium levels in foods have been reduced.
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