Less sodium in fast foods could cut heart disease risk for New Zealanders

New Zealand adults are eating, on average, far more salt daily than international recommendations; however, takeaways frequently do not display salt content.

New Zealanders over 15 years consume around 3,000mg of sodium per day, compared with the World Health Organization’s upper limit of 2,000mg (or one tsp of salt) per day.

Under the Food Standards Code, it is mandatory to provide nutrition information for packaged foods, but there are no such regulations for fast food, say public health researchers at the University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau in a new study.

Dietary sodium comes chiefly from salt. The researchers are calling for a national sodium-reduction strategy but say a key first step would be mandatory labeling of the sodium content in takeaway meals.

“A single serve of a burger or takeout sandwich with fries can easily provide more than the recommended daily upper limit for sodium [dietary salt] of 2,000mg,” says Associate Professor Helen Eyles from the School of Population Health in Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.

In 2020, the average NZ household spent a third (29%) of its weekly food budget on restaurant meals and takeaways.

Of 28 major fast-food chains, with more than 20 outlets, reviewed in 2020, ten did not provide information on the sodium content of their products.

Of 5,246 products checked, only one-third provided sodium data for consumers, according to the research published in the Journal of Nutritional Science.

This is despite salt being a significant contributor to heart disease.

Excess sodium (salt) consumption leads to raised blood pressure, which in turn can lead to stroke, heart attack, and other types of heart disease, the leading causes of preventable mortality in New Zealand and globally.

New Zealand has committed to a 30% relative reduction in mean population sodium intake by 2025, as part of the WHO Global Action Plan for reducing non-communicable diseases, which it is unlikely to achieve.

The countries that are doing the best in sodium reduction have a national sodium reduction strategy and a multipronged approach— it is not just about fast food but packaged food too, Eyles says.

In addition to setting benchmarks for processed foods, a strategy would include a consumer awareness campaign, improved labeling of salt in foods, and monitoring of the food environment alongside population salt intake, says Shona Gomes, whose masters research on target development informed the new paper.

Currently, New Zealand has only two voluntary strategies to reduce sodium in processed foods in place—targets for some categories of packaged foods (led by the Heart Foundation of New Zealand) and the Government-led Health Star Rating nutrition label.

Countries doing well have comprehensive benchmarks for packaged foods, and at least some sections of fast foods, such as for sodium on fries, and in burgers and pizzas.

“First of all, in New Zealand, we need to make it visible how much salt is in our fast foods,” Eyles says.

“We really need a national sodium reduction strategy implemented by the government, with one prong of that approach being to work with fast food manufacturers to reduce salt in their products.”