title: Nutritional modelling: distributions of salt intake from processed foods in New Zealand.
abstract: The salt content of processed foods is important because of the high intake of Na by most New Zealanders. A database of Na concentrations in fifty-eight processed foods was compiled from existing and new data and combined with 24 h diet recall data from two national nutrition surveys (5771 respondents) to derive salt intakes for seven population groups. Mean salt intakes from processed foods ranged from 6.9 g/d for young males aged 19-24 years to 3.5 g/d for children aged 5-6 years. A total of > or = 50 % of children aged 5-6 years, boys aged 11-14 years and young males aged 19-24 years had salt intakes that exceeded the upper limit for Na, calculated as salt (3.2-5.3 g/d), from processed foods only. Bread accounted for the greatest contribution to salt intake for each population group (35-43 % of total salt intake). Other foods that contributed 2 % or more and common across most age groups were sausage, meat pies, pizza, instant noodles and cheese. The Na concentrations of key foods have changed little over the 16-year period from 1987 to 2003 except for corned beef and whole milk that have decreased by 34 and 50 % respectively. Bread is an obvious target for salt reduction but the implication on iodine intake needs consideration as salt is used as a vehicle for iodine fortification of bread.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Science and Research Ltd, Christchurch, New Zealand. Barbara.Thomson@esr.cri.nz
authors.forename: Barbara M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Thomson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D001939:Bread; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D005504:Food Analysis; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017673:Sodium Chloride, Dietary / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D017673:Sodium Chloride, Dietary