Salt reduction paying off
04 February 2009
British consumers are benefitting from the food industry’s salt reduction efforts, according to new data from market insight provider, TNS Worldpanel
Between September 2006 and September 2008, shoppers bought an impressive 3,794 tonnes less salt in five categories: bread (incl morning goods*), breakfast cereals, canned goods, crisps, and savoury home cooking products (incl table salt).
This huge ongoing reduction can be attributed to the food industry’s continued reformulation of products, as well as the increased consumer awareness of the importance of eating a diet that is lower in salt.
TNS Worldpanel analyses the information on the nutrition labels of 100,000 food and drink products bought by 25,000 households, and found that these five categories experienced the biggest reductions in their salt contribution.
In the bread (incl morning goods) category, the data show that products bought by consumers over the two-year period contained an impressive 828 tonnes less salt. Shoppers saved 490 tonnes of salt when buying breakfast cereals, while the canned goods category had 573 tonnes less.
The crisps category had 210 tonnes less salt, and savoury home cooking products (incl table salt) posted the biggest salt reduction at 1,693 tonnes.
Cathy Capelin, Strategic Insight Director, TNS Worldpanel, says: “Despite a buoyant retail food market – driven mostly by inflation – where the annual spend on food and drink in Great Britain grew by 11% between September 2006 and September 2008, and volume growth was 1.8%, there was an overall decline in the amount of salt contained in products bought. As a result, the average household purchased the equivalent of 1.3% less salt over the same time period.”
Julian Hunt, FDF Director of Communications adds: “This research gives us a snapshot of how salt levels are reducing, and builds on the reformulation work our members have been carrying out over many years. Bread and cereals are two good examples of categories where salt reduction has been ongoing for some considerable time. It also shows how educational the widespread use of front-of-pack Guideline Daily Amounts has been, with growing consumer understanding that they should consume no more than 6g of salt per day.”
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