Reformulation of Romanian Meat Products and Cheeses: is this a Necessity for a Lower Salt Intake?

Reducing salt is a major task for companies all over the world. Scientific evidence has linked excessive salt consumption to increased risk of high blood pressure. The question we tried to answer to is if meat products and cheeses need to be reformulated, in order to bring down their salt content, taking in account the daily intake of cold cuts and diary products in our country. The intake was assessed by 7-days food diaries, completed by a representative sample of Romanians. The values used for the salt content were computed from data gathered in Romania since 2007. The average value of salt for Romanian cheeses is 2.4 g /100 g and for meat products, 2, 2 g /100 g. The food diaries showed that meat products and cheeses cover low percents of the daily salt intake (4%; 4%), with little variations between regions of the country. The present study concludes that cheeses and cold cuts, although consumed in all Romanian regions, have not a great contribution to the total salt intake in our country, so reformulation is not an emergency. However, the producers have to target in future a better management of the use of salt in the food chains, in the frame of advised descendent trends of the salt quantity introduced in human food. It has to be kept in mind that as long as the technological process allows it, every milligram of salt taken away from the product `s recipe is a helper of the consumer `s health.