Kraft to reduce salt in foods by 10% in two years

Kraft Foods, the largest food maker in North America, announced on Wednesday that it plans to reduce use of salt in its food sold in North America by 10 percent over the next two years, according to media reports.

The move could mean that Kraft would eliminate more than 10 million pounds of salt from some most popular foods in North America.

PepsiCo early said it would stop selling full-sugar soft drinks to primary and secondary schools worldwide by 2012.  The company has already secured some natural form of sweetener that comes with zero calories.

Industry insiders said Kraft has been working on salt reduction for its foods at least in the past couple of years.  In recent years, the company has been working on some technologies that can help reduce salt in its foods without compromising their sensory quality.

It is generally believed that Americans consume too much salt, which has been linked to high risk of developing hypertension or high blood pressure, a precursor to heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and kidney disease.

Reduction in salt by 10 percent can eliminate 500,000 heart attacks and 531,885 strokes over the lifetime of adults ages 40 to 85, according to a study led by Dr. Crystal Smith-Spangler, lead author of the study and a health services researcher at the Stanford University Center for Health Policy. The study was published in the March 2, 2010 issue of Annals of internal Medicine.

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines 2005 recommend that the general population consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium or about a teaspoon of table salt. This means that the U.S. recommends daily table salt intake for an adult is 5844 grams.

By David Liu