Food industry plans to cut the salt content of bread by 5% immediately have met a cool reception from Government and medical bodies.
The Food Standards Agency, which will launch a consumer salt awareness campaign this autumn, commented: "We welcome any move to reduce salt levels in food, but there is a long way to go to reduce salt in processed foods across the board and achieve our target for people to have less than 6g of salt per day."
The Government has ordered the industry to revise its salt reduction plans by September or face the imposition of warning labels on high-salt foods. It believes cutting consumption will reduce the incidence of heart disease and strokes.
Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at St George's Hospital, London, and chairman of Consensus Action on Salt and Health, was also unimpressed. "Quite frankly, it is a lot of hot air; it is not a serious attempt to cut the salt content in food," he said. He said bread was the main source of dietary salt, contributing 0.5g per slice.
Although a high-salt diet suppressed the tongue's salt taste receptors so more and more salt was needed to achieve the same taste, MacGregor said that these receptors could not detect reductions of 10-15% at a time.
"Food producers and caterers, therefore, have nothing to fear if they gradually reduce their salt content by 10% each year for five years," he concluded. "No one will reject the food."
But he added that there were strong commercial pressures to retain high salt levels, as salt can make substandard or cheap, tasteless food edible at no cost. It can also be used to bulk up products such as sausages by binding water to the ingredients.