Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the amount of salt in food consumed in the UK.

The United Kingdom’s salt reduction programme is world leading, with population average intakes of salt being reduced by 15% (from 9.5g to 8.1g) between 2001 and 2011.

We still have further to go to meet recommended intake levels of 6 grams per day. New voluntary salt reduction targets have been developed for 76 specific food groups that contribute most to people’s salt intakes and major retailers, manufacturers and caterers are working to meet these targets by December 2017.

Maximum per serving salt targets for the out of home sector (restaurants and caterers) have also been set, covering the 10 most popular dishes on menus and children’s meals, and these are being supported by further actions in this sector, including training chefs, reformulating dishes and procuring lower salt ingredients.