FDA issues draft guidance to food industry on voluntary sodium reduction

The FDA has issued a draft guidance to the food industry on voluntarily reducing sodium in processed and commercially prepared food.

The document drew praise from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.

The draft guidance recommends 2-year and 10-year voluntary targets to gradually reduce sodium intake to 2,300 mg per day. Current mean sodium intake in the United States is approximately 3,400 mg per day.

“The totality of the scientific evidence supports sodium reduction from current intake levels,” Susan Mayne, PhD, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said in a press release. “Experts at the Institute of Medicine have concluded that reducing sodium intake to 2,300 mg per day can significantly help Americans reduce their [BP] and, ultimately, prevent hundreds of thousands of premature illnesses and deaths.”

Susan Mayne

In the draft guidance, the FDA suggests a “system for defining and measuring progress on reducing sodium in the U.S. food supply” for nearly 150 categories of processed and prepared foods.

“Many Americans want to reduce sodium in their diets, but that’s hard to do when much of it is in everyday products we buy in stores and restaurants,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in the release. “Today’s announcement is about putting power back in the hands of consumers so that they can better control how much salt is in the food they eat and improve their health.”

Saving lives

In an editorial, Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH, director of the CDC, said diseases could be prevented with the proposed guidelines.

Thomas R. Frieden

“It is estimated that a decrease in sodium intake by as little as 400 mg [per day] could prevent 32,000 [MI] and 20,000 strokes annually. Reducing sodium intake by 1,200 mg [per] day may reduce the number of people with hypertension by nearly 11 million. Over a decade, this reduction could prevent up to an estimated 500,000 deaths and may save an estimated $100 billion in health care costs,” Frieden wrote.

Open dialogue

The FDA’s release of the voluntary targets also garnered supporting statements from the ACC and the AHA.

“Salt reduction targets released by the FDA today are a positive step forward in raising awareness of excessive salt in the American diet and providing healthier food options,” Richard Chazal, MD, FACC, president of the ACC, said in a press release. “High [BP], which is associated with excessive sodium intake, is an important risk factor for heart disease that can be reduced through a healthy lifestyle, which also includes exercise and a diet with a variety of unprocessed foods.”

Richard Chazal

AHA CEO Nancy Brown said in a press release that: “These new targets will spark a vital, healthy change in our food supply, a change consumers say they want. ... We urge industry to follow the lead of Mars Foods, Nestle, PepsiCo and Unilever, who have shown support for the release of these targets. We look forward to a dialogue with the FDA, industry and other public health organizations on how we can work together to reach these goals.”

The draft document is open for feedback during the 90- and 150-day comment periods. – by Tracey Romero

Reference:
Frieden T. JAMA. 2016; doi:10.1001/jama.2016.7992.

Disclosure: Mayne is an employee of the FDA, Burwell is an employee of HHS and Frieden is an employee of the CDC. Chazal reports no relevant financial disclosures.