Shake the salt habit

14 February 2022

 

This year’s National Salt Awareness Week will be held between 14th – 20th March and will shine a spotlight on a simple yet effective way to improve our health – asking the food industry to shake their salt habit! See how you can help, below. 

Campaign group Action on Salt will put pressure on the food industry to lower the salt they add to our food and lower our blood pressure with it, and they have our full support. With most of the salt in our diets already added to the foods we buy, we need the food industry to prioritise our health over their profit.

Too much salt can harm our health, leading to unnecessary deaths from heart attacks and strokes. Salt reduction policies aimed specifically at the food industry are necessary and proportional: three quarters of the salt the UK eats each day is already in packaged and prepared foods. This cannot be removed by the consumer, so simply telling people to eat less salt will not work when our food is full of it.

Salt reduction has been a feature of UK food policy for two decades and is accepted globally as a cost-effective strategy to improve public health. The UK’s salt reduction model has inspired the world, and to date, more than 90 countries now have some form of salt reduction policy in place, yet there is still so much further to go.

This year, join us the campaign asking the food industry to shake their salt habit, so that we can all live longer, healthier lives.

How you can help

• Write to your MP asking them to get behind the cause, making salt reduction in processed food mandatory.
• Write to your favourite company or retailer asking them to reduce the salt they add to their food or to stock and promote lower salt options. A 10% reduction in salt will go unnoticed by many, but it will add up to lower blood pressure.
• Download the poster and display it where everyone can see.
• Get active on social media to tell your community about the campaign. Action on Salt will have posts you can share during the week to make it even easier. Use the handles @actiononsalt for Twitter and @actiononsaltandsugar for instagram.
• Join the conversation: #SaltAwarenessWeek
• Look out for salt in the news. The campaign always makes headlines. Be sure to read and share the stories.
• Keep in touch. If you would like to get involved this year then get in touch with Action on Salt at cash@qmul.ac.uk You’ll find more details on their website nearer the time too.

How you can eat less salt

• Follow these top tips for cutting down on salt at home and choosing lower salt foods, all to lower your blood pressure.