Sodium /salt content in foods consumed by Argentines. Monitoring compliance with agreements

SAMMAN NORMA; CALLIOPE SONIA

Buenos Aires

Conferencia; 12 th International Food data conference; 2017

FAO, Conicet, Infood, Latinfood

AbstractIntroduction PAHO and WHO supported the initiative "Less salt, more life" making recommendations on implementing strategies to reduce salt content in processed foods, which were taken by the Argentine authoritiesObjectivesTo evaluate the sodium content in packaged foods consumed in Argentina, relieving values of nutrition labels.Verifying the compliance with agreements made by companies on gradual reduction of sodium. To select two food groups to perform chemical analysis of sodium content.Methodology During 2011/12 and 2014/15, a database on sodium content was developed, taking the values declared on the nutritional labels of processed foods. Twelve food groups were determined. Two groups, breads and derivatives, and meat products and derivatives, were selected to determine sodium content by chemical analysis (AOAC Met, No. 923.03 and 968.08). The sampling plan for breads (Method of Cochran), determined n = 18; Samples composed of 21 varieties of breads were analyzed. For meat products, simple random sampling was applied and 9 products (Cooked ham, pork leg, pork trowel, mortadella, coarsely chopped salami, finely chopped salami, salami type Milan, 2 type of sausages) of the two best-selling brands in the country and they were analyzed.Main Findings In the period 2011/12 it was found that the groups with the highest sodium content in decreasing order were: convenience foods, meats and by-products, breads and by-products, cereals and cereal products with average contents of 1108; 921; 453 and 241 mg/100g respectively. In 2014/15, the following groups were highlighted: condiments, group including broths (9271mg/100g), soups (6296 mg/100g), meats and derivatives (979 mg/100g), breads (399 mg/100g) and pastas that including products made with cheeses and sauces (308 mg/100g). It was observed that there was only a decrease in the declared sodium content in breads group. The analytical values showed differences with the label values in all types of breads analyzed. The individual values presented variability higher than 20%established by Norma Mercosur N° 46/03. In meat products, 62.5% of analyzed products exceeded the values declared on the label, although the difference was within the tolerance range ± 20%.Conclusion The food industry is meeting the new sodium/salt reduction requirements. However, although a decrease in sodium content in breads was observed, salt levels remain very high in the processed foodsKeywordsSalt, processed foods, international agreements