U.K. Agency Calls for Salt Reduction

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence wants to lower the amount of sodium in food.

June 23, 2010

LONDON - The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) wants the government to press the food manufacturers to lower salt and harmful fats in foods, the Wall Street Journal reports. The agency claims doing so could prevent some 40,000 premature deaths from heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular problems that happen yearly in the United Kingdom.

Some of the ways NICE suggested to accomplish this would be meatier labeling regulations and television commercial restrictions. "This guidance can help the government and the food industry to take action to prevent huge numbers of unnecessary deaths and illnesses caused by heart disease and stroke," said Klim McPherson, chairman of the NICE group that came up with the recommendation. "Where food is concerned, we want the healthy choice to be the easy choice. Going even further, we want the healthy choice to be the less expensive, more attractive choice."

The guidelines follow European Union lawmakers?? backing of stronger food labeling rules that would require that sugar, calorie, salt and fat data be posted on the package front. However, NICE didn??t give specifics as to how some of the recommendations would happen, such as offering healthier foods at a lower price. The agency also didn??t put forth how much salt or fat needed to be cut from food products.

The Food and Drink Federation lobbying group noted that food manufacturers already have reduced fat, salt and sugar in foods, and made changes to labels, making the NICE guidelines irrelevant. The agency??s recommendations are "out of touch with the reality of what has been happening for many years," the group said in a statement.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement