To mark Salt Awareness Week, ASDA announced today that it will hit the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) salt reduction targets across all its own label food categories within the next year – nearly three years ahead of the 2010 deadline set by the FSA. 

In March 2006, the FSA set voluntary salt reduction targets to encourage food manufacturers and retailers to cut the amount of salt across the 85 food categories that contribute most significantly towards people’s dietary salt intake. 

The aim of introducing these targets was to help bring down the average UK salt intake to no more than 6g a day by 2010. 

To achieve this goal, ASDA has pursued an intensive programme of product reformulation to dramatically cut the amount of salt in its products but without compromising on taste and integrity. 

By the end of 2006, the supermarket had already met the FSA target for salt reduction across at least 65 per cent of its own brand products.   

The work will continue this year and ASDA is committed to removing a further 156 tonnes of salt from its products in the next twelve months in order to hit the FSA target. 

An average shopping basket of everyday ASDA grocery items* now contains a staggering 240 tonnes less salt than it did ten years ago. 

The supermarket has stripped out more than half the salt found in everyday items such as its own brand baked beans (0.7g salt per 100g) white bread (1g salt per 100g), Smart Price pasta sauce (0.7g salt per 100g) and tomato soup (0.5g salt per 100g).   

Vanessa Hattersley, ASDA nutritionist, said: “We set ourselves an ambitious deadline for ensuring every single one of our own-label products meets the FSA’s salt reduction targets and are thrilled that we’re on track to hit this nearly three years ahead of the FSA’s deadline.   

“We know our customers want us to help them eat more healthily but we don’t think they should have to pay more for the privilege.  That’s why we’re committed to doing all we need to, to make our products healthier but at the same time are making sure we’re not passing on any extra cost to our customers.”