Salt. Sodium Chloride. NaCl. We all love it. The basic liking for saltiness is innate in humans. But the preference for a certain level of saltiness is learned through repeated eating experiences. And as salt masks bitter flavours and enhances other aromatics, it takes clever strategies to change our palates. Let’s look at what’s new, hot and happening this Salt Awareness Week?
Step it down slowly
The food industry has been working steadily on sodium reduction targets for many years now in your favourite brands, without you even knowing it. You see if category wide step down changes in sodium occur slowly, your favourite cereal tastes just fine. But if they tell you it’s changed, you get a little nervous that the enjoyment will have changed too. Food technologists are pushing boundaries with formulations and flake size to give maximum impact with less. Read more about Australian Government sodium targets here.
“The Heart Foundation has also consistently called for a strong food reformulation program, robust labelling, education campaigns and upper limits for salt in processed food. Australia is making progress but like many other countries – we still have a long way to go if we are to meet the new WHO target of reducing salt consumption by 30% by 2025,” said the Heart Foundation’s Dietitian Ms Barbara Eden .
KFC Shakes the Habit
Throughout Salt Awareness Week at all 600 stores nationwide, the KFC team will be encouraging customers to ask for unsalted chips, via new uniforms created specifically for the week. This initiative is an Australian first for fast food, supported by AWASH and builds on KFCs menu wide work at sodium reduction. They have previously reduced the sodium content of seasoned chip salt by 21%. KFC tells me they are logging all sales and will be reporting on the initiative – and yes, customers can continue to order “just a little” or “no salt” after the week.
Reporting on company and industry wide step down sodium reductions is important and not just highlighting a single food or a single week. According to very recent research in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics total sodium and energy (calorie) in USA fast food restaurants did not change significantly during the study period. The researchers concluded that, “Industry marketing and pledges may create a misleading perception that restaurant menus are becoming substantially healthier, but both healthy and unhealthy menu changes can occur simultaneously.”
Salt sommelier – yes indeedy
Recently I told you about Scoop Nutrition’s partnership with caterer, Bright Young Things Event Makers. We’ve of course performed nutrition analysis on the whole menu and kept a check on sodium counts. And this meant switching out things like higher salt commerical tomato juice for fresh pressed in our Healthy Mary cocktail. Plus in many menu items we’ve left the salty sauce or ingredient to the side and staff instruct guests to take to their health needs or salt tasting preference.
We’ve also talked about the concept of finishing salts, different flavoured salts, artisanal salts and provenance from porcini mushroom to Fleur de Sel or beautiful, local Mount Zero Pink Lake. Even tossed around the concept of having a Salt Sommelier – a person trained in the art of flavour matching to enhance an under seasoned dish with the perfect sprinkle. You can read about the 17 salts offered at this Phuket resort and more on salt sommeliers here.
So the concept of going cold turkey with your favourite chicken salt may sound rough. But even Miss 11 said “It would be kinda interesting to see what the actual taste of the chips on their own were like”. And that’s exactly it. It challenges us to consider our habits with nutrition. What do you think? And is the concept of a salt sommelier in good taste or just a fine dining fad?
