Monitoring and compliance of salt reduction targets in processed foods in South Africa

Background and objectives: Great strides in reducing salt intake have been made globally. In 2016, the South African Government implemented regulations to enforce mandatory reduction in the sodium content of a wide range of processed foods. A stepwise approach was adopted (target dates June 2016 and April 2020) to allow the food industry to achieve the final recommended sodium levels. Some reports of food labelling indicate compliance with targets, but in the absence of routinely collected laboratory analytical data, these cannot be validated. Methods: The sodium content of key foods in 8 of 13 of the food categories included in the mandatory sodium reduction legislation were sampled and analysed using dry-ashing and Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). Calibration was done using an acidified calibration range. The analytical values were compared with sodium content information provided on food packaging labels. Results: More than 80% of the foods analysed have sodium levels below the Phase 2 salt targets. For the categories of dry soup powders, fat and butter spreads, processed meat (cured), stock cubes/powders/ granules/emulsions/pastes or jellies, food labels had higher sodium content compared to the analytical values. The only food category that had a labelling value that was less than the analytical value for sodium was processed meats (uncured). Conclusions: There is evidence that salt reduction regulations are effective in reducing population-level salt intake. However, this requires strong governmental leadership with multi-stakeholder buy-in. A key component to demonstrating the success of the sodium reduction legislation is systematic monitoring and surveillance of the sodium content of packaged foods, however there is no system in place for this to occur.