The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday issued final guidance that provides voluntary, short-term sodium reduction targets for food manufacturers, chain restaurants, and food service operators.
The targets in the final guidance seek to decrease average sodium intake from approximately 3,400 milligrams (mg) to 3,000 mg per day – roughly a 12 percent reduction – over the next 2.5 years, according to FDA’s press release. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans’ recommended limit is 2,300 mg per day for those 14 and older.
“Changes across the overall food supply will make it easier to access lower-sodium options and reduce intake even in the absence of behavior change,” FDA said. “We will continue our discussions with the food industry as we monitor the sodium content of the food supply to evaluate progress. In the future, we plan to issue revised, subsequent targets to further lower the sodium content incrementally and continue to help reduce sodium intake. … Voluntary and gradual approaches such as this have also been successful in other countries, such as Canada and the U.K.”
The FDA first proposed recommendations for reducing sodium in 2016 draft guidance. The final guidance released Wednesday can be found here. Further information regarding FDA’s sodium reduction goals can be found here.
