Salt Awareness Week Activities 2020
World Salt Awareness week took place from the March 9th to 15th. The theme was “Hide and Seek” and global activities aimed to highlight salt “hidden” in processed and packaged food and the difficulties faced by consumers “seeking” lower salt options. People were encouraged to contact food companies to demand less salt in food as […]
Unpack the Salt – Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership
The Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership has shared findings of the consumer awareness campaign, ‘Unpack the Salt’, which ran from 2017-2019. Following the campaign, around 80% of the target audience were able to correctly recall at least one key message unprompted, such as where hidden salt is found in foods. Over the course of the campaign […]
Parents’ Perceptions about Salt Consumption in Urban Areas of Peru: Formative Research for a Social Marketing Strategy
A sequential exploratory methods design was used to gather qualitative data through interviews and focus groups with parents of pre-school children of high and low socioeconomic status from urban areas of Peru (n=64). Quantitative data was subsequently obtained via questionnaires sent to all parents (n=232). The study found that household cooking was a duty of […]
Changing Sodium Knowledge, Attitudes and Intended Behaviours Using Web-Based Dietary Assessment Tools – Canada
Jefferson K et al investigated the use of novel web-based tools to provide tailored feedback regarding sodium knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. 199 individuals took part in the single arm pre- and post- test study, testing the use of the Sodium Calculator and the Sodium Calculator Plus. Sodium related knowledge increased after use of both calculators, […]
Costa Rica – World Health Day celebration
The Costa Rican team of the multi-center project “Scaling-up and evaluating salt reduction policies and programs in five countries in Latin America” launched open educational materials for World Heart Day celebrations on the 29th of September. These educational materials are intended to sensitize and develop skills in children, adolescents and their families to reduce excessive […]
Sodium Reduction: Assessment to Action
The Health Resources in Action team have recently released an online sodium reduction assessment and action tool kit for food services. The aim of the toolkit is to assist the food service sector to conduct their assessment and then turn their results into an action plan. Areas covered include: food service guidelines and standards, food […]
Salt-Related Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviours on Efate Island, Vanuatu
Sparks E et al published an article in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on salt-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours in a sub-national sample in Vanuatu. They found that salt-related knowledge was high, with over 80% agreeing that too much salt could cause health problems, and that it was ‘very important’ to lower […]
Fact sheet and call to action on dietary sodium in Canada
Hypertension Canada released a ‘Fact sheet and call to action on dietary sodium’ in January, which received widespread support from Canadian health and scientific organizations. The fact sheet highlights the risk of high sodium intakes, the importance of population sodium reduction, and opportunities for sodium reduction in Canada. The call to action comprises 10 priority […]
Costa Ricans consuming almost twice the recommended amount of salt
Costa Ricans consume almost double the WHO salt recommendations. The Costa Rican Institute for Research and Education in Nutrition and Health (Incenses) have coordinated two international events to raise awareness of the issue. In February, a workshop “Application of social marketing in the creation of capacities and the reduction of salt intake in Latin America: […]
Understanding Barriers and Enablers to State Action on Salt: Analysis of Stakeholder Perceptions of the VicHealth Salt Reduction Partnership
A study by McKenzie et al investigated stakeholder perceptions of the Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership. The Partnership consists of health and research organisations that came together in 2015 to develop an action plan for salt reduction interventions in Victoria, Australia. Fourteen stakeholders were interviewed (12 members of the partnership and two informal collaborators) at the mid-point […]