New recipes contain less salt, says Food and Drink federation

Customers are consuming less salt thanks to new recipes brought in by the food and drink industry, according to a study by the Food and Drink Federation.

The research was conducted by Kantar Worldpanel which analysed the information on the nutrition labels of 100,000 products and found the net salt content of all purchases (excluding table salt) decreased by 7,667 tonnes – or 5.3% – between September 2007 to September 2009.

Julian Hunt, FDF's director of communications, said: "Changing recipes is a complex and costly process. But food manufacturers have been working hard to reduce the salt in their products in a way that does not impact taste or quality. These new figures clearly demonstrate that our efforts continue to make a real difference for consumers."

Cathy Capelin, head of nutrition services, Kantar Worldpanel, added: "Despite a buoyant retail food market, where there was a 3% increase in the volume of goods bought in supermarkets in Great Britain between September 2007 and September 2009, there was an impressive overall decline of 5.3% in the amount of salt contained in the products purchased."

Words: Maria Bracken

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