| Summary: | Introduction. Salt intake above 5 g/person/day is a strong independent risk
factor for hypertension, stroke and cardiovascular diseases. Published
studies indicate that the main source of salt in human diet is processed
ready-to-eat food, contributing with 65-85% to daily salt intake. Objective.
The aim of this paper was to present data on salt content of ready-to-eat
food retailed in Novi Sad, Serbia, and contribution of the salt contained in
100 g of food to the recommended daily intake of salt for healthy and persons
with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Methods. In 1,069 samples of
ready-to-eat food, salt (sodium chloride) content was calculated based on
chloride ion determined by titrimetric method, while in 54 samples of bottled
water sodium content was determined using flame-photometry. Food items in
each food group were categorized as low, medium or high salt. Average salt
content of each food group was expressed as a percentage of recommended daily
intake for healthy and for persons with CVD risk. Results. Average salt
content (g/100 g) ranged from 0.36±0.48 (breakfast cereals) to 2.32±1.02
(grilled meat). The vast majority of the samples of sandwiches (91.7%), pizza
(80.7%), salami (73.9%), sausages (72.9%), grilled meat (70.0%) and hard
cheese (69.6%) had a high salt profile. Average amount of salt contained in
100 g of food participated with levels ranging from 7.2% (breakfast cereals)
to 46.4% (grilled meat) and from 9.6% to 61.8% in the recommended daily
intake for healthy adult and person with CVD risk, respectively. Average
sodium content in 100 ml of bottled spring and mineral water was 0.33±0.30 mg
and 33±44 mg, respectively. Conclusion. Ready-to-eat food retailed in Novi
Sad has high hidden salt content, which could be considered as an important
contributor to relatively high salt consumption of its inhabitants.
|
|---|
