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13 July 2012 09:48
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A study released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has said that consumers are unlikely to see further significant salt reductions in the food they buy as manufacturers await scientific advances.
The BRC said retailers and manufacturers risked producing food which had less salt but went off too quickly or lacked flavour, which it claimed could turn consumers away to food with higher amounts of salt. The BRC and FDF said members remained committed to reducing salt but that this was likely to mean small changes to individual products rather than dramatic reductions across entire ranges "given the limited solutions identified in the report".
BRC deputy food director Andrea Martinez-Inchausti said: "The UK leads the world in salt reduction and we're approaching the limit of what is currently possible. Producing foods with even less salt but which go off too quickly or lack flavour could simply result in consumers switching to higher salt products. That's no solution.
"Retailers take their commitment to public health extremely seriously and have invested their own money in this research specifically to look for new ways of doing even better on salt. There's no arguing with the science though. Development of new techniques is going to take time and retailers will have to wait for those advances along with everybody else.
