FDA’s Voluntary Sodium Reduction Goals: Key Takeaways from Recent Webinar

On October 10, 2024, FDA hosted a public webinar to discuss the Voluntary Sodium Reduction Goals (Edition 2) and review progress. Key FDA speakers provided updates on the latest sodium reduction targets and insights into the progress made so far.As previously discussed on this blog, FDA issued Edition 2 of the Draft Guidance for Industry Voluntary Sodium Reduction Goals in August 2024. These goals aim to encourage the food industry to gradually reduce sodium levels in packaged and prepared foods, addressing diet-related chronic diseases and promoting health equity. Over 70% of sodium consumed in the US comes from processed and prepared foods. The goal is to lower average daily sodium intake from 3,400 mg to 2,300 mg.FDA developed baselines for sodium concentrations based on label data and created target mean and upper bound sodium concentration goals. The target mean is an average for the food category as a whole, while the voluntary upper bound applies to every individual product... Read the complete article here...© 2024 Keller and Heckman LLP

On October 10, 2024, FDA hosted a public webinar to discuss the Voluntary Sodium Reduction Goals (Edition 2) and review progress. Key FDA speakers provided updates on the latest sodium reduction targets and insights into the progress made so far. As previously discussed on this blog , FDA issued Edition 2 of the Draft Guidance for Industry Voluntary Sodium Reduction Goals in August 2024.

These goals aim to encourage the food industry to gradually reduce sodium levels in packaged and prepared foods, addressing diet-related chronic diseases and promoting health equity. Over 70% of sodium consumed in the US comes from processed and prepared foods. The goal is to lower average daily sodium intake from 3,400 mg to 2,300 mg.

FDA developed baselines for sodium concentrations based on label data and created target mean and upper bound sodium concentration goals. The target mean is an average for the food category as a whole, while the voluntary upper bound applies to every individual product and for which no individual product should exceed. During the webinar, FDA highlighted the draft targets issued on August 15 and provided a preliminary assessment of progress towards Phase 1 targets.

The new 2024 guidance lowers the average sodium intake goal to 2,750 mg/day, includes restaurant data from 15 categories, and adds 3 new subcategories. Key findings from the preliminary assessment include: There are 16 broad food categories with 163 subcategories. Of the 16 overarching categories, 11.