SODIUM REDUCTION IN PROCESSED FOOD:
TAKE IT WITH A PINCH OF SALT!
There has been much publicity in recent times about reducing the sodium (salt) content of processed foods. Such high profile companies as PepsiCo (Frito-Lay) have openly committed to salt reduction.
Some readers may remember the last anti-salt crusade of the 1980s. For the food industry, this was a fiasco. Food marketers opportunistically launched low-salt or even no-salt versions of everyday products such as peanut butter and tomato sauce, unaware of salt's critical role in acceptability. Salt is the flavour enhancer par excellence; it dramatically increases overall flavour impact and markedly enhances acceptability. No other substance can provide the flavour hit of salt. It's used in a multitude of products, many of which are not even recognisably salty (sweet biscuits, for example). In cereal products such as bread it is indispensable.
So what's different this time? Well, the companies committing to the reduction have learned their lesson and will do it gradually. The theory is that by taking it a small step at a time, over a longer timeframe, consumers will not notice the reduction and will eventually habituate to a lower salt level. In sensory parlance this is referred to as the 'salami effect': by reducing in small slices, each one less than the just noticeable difference (JND), consumers will not demur.
Certainly there is evidence that consumers can adapt to sensory changes. Take low-fat milk, for instance. Although less creamy, it is not less thick, because it is bolstered by the addition of other solids. After a few weeks of use consumer can habituate to the new profile, even to the extent where, upon returning to full-fat, they find it "fatty", or "off".
But with milk, the adjustment is to a different flavour, not a weaker one - a qualitative rather than quantitative adjustment. With salt, we are talking about a weakening, a quantitative reduction. And the effect of this on acceptability can be disastrous.
The chart above shows how perceived saltiness varies with actual salt concentration. You'll see that perceived saltiness increases rapidly at the lower salt concentrations, but tends to flatten out as salt concentration goes higher (for the technically minded, the curve is approximately logarithmic). In practical terms, then, it's not an issue to lower the salt level in products that are already high in salt, because this will not greatly affect perceived saltiness. But in products that are low-to-medium, further reduction will significantly lower perceived saltiness, seriously compromising acceptability. We need here to know something about the psychophysics of saltiness.
And there is another issue of concern. If salt is reduced gradually, and consumers seemingly adapt to the change, has their preference fundamentally shifted? Or would they really prefer still to be eating the original recipe? The data here is inconclusive although anecdotal information suggests, with salt and with sugar, that preferences may not shift fundamentally. If this is the case, the low salt movement will always be vulnerable.
Health professionals, in exhorting us all to eat less salt, continue to underestimate the power of sodium chloride, NaCl, common table salt. Ferran Adrià, the high-tech chef at El Bulli, currently the world's most celebrated restaurant, keeps hundreds of jars of flavour specimens in his kitchen; but set apart from these, behind glass, is a small pot of salt. "That's to remind us that salt is the most important ingredient in the world," he says.
SENSOMETRICS IS THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS
(02) 9438 4111
WWW.SENSOMETRICS.COM
SODIUM REDUCTION IN PROCESSED FOOD:
TAKE IT WITH A PINCH OF SALT!
There has been much publicity in recent times about reducing the sodium (salt) content of processed foods. Such high profile companies as PepsiCo (Frito-Lay) have openly committed to salt reduction.
Some readers may remember the last anti-salt crusade of the 1980s. For the food industry, this was a fiasco. Food marketers opportunistically launched low-salt or even no-salt versions of everyday products such as peanut butter and tomato sauce, unaware of salt's critical role in acceptability. Salt is the flavour enhancer par excellence; it dramatically increases overall flavour impact and markedly enhances acceptability. No other substance can provide the flavour hit of salt. It's used in a multitude of products, many of which are not even recognisably salty (sweet biscuits, for example). In cereal products such as bread it is indispensable.
So what's different this time? Well, the companies committing to the reduction have learned their lesson and will do it gradually. The theory is that by taking it a small step at a time, over a longer timeframe, consumers will not notice the reduction and will eventually habituate to a lower salt level. In sensory parlance this is referred to as the 'salami effect': by reducing in small slices, each one less than the just noticeable difference (JND), consumers will not demur.
Certainly there is evidence that consumers can adapt to sensory changes. Take low-fat milk, for instance. Although less creamy, it is not less thick, because it is bolstered by the addition of other solids. After a few weeks of use consumer can habituate to the new profile, even to the extent where, upon returning to full-fat, they find it "fatty", or "off".
But with milk, the adjustment is to a different flavour, not a weaker one - a qualitative rather than quantitative adjustment. With salt, we are talking about a weakening, a quantitative reduction. And the effect of this on acceptability can be disastrous.
The chart above shows how perceived saltiness varies with actual salt concentration. You'll see that perceived saltiness increases rapidly at the lower salt concentrations, but tends to flatten out as salt concentration goes higher (for the technically minded, the curve is approximately logarithmic). In practical terms, then, it's not an issue to lower the salt level in products that are already high in salt, because this will not greatly affect perceived saltiness. But in products that are low-to-medium, further reduction will significantly lower perceived saltiness, seriously compromising acceptability. We need here to know something about the psychophysics of saltiness.
And there is another issue of concern. If salt is reduced gradually, and consumers seemingly adapt to the change, has their preference fundamentally shifted? Or would they really prefer still to be eating the original recipe? The data here is inconclusive although anecdotal information suggests, with salt and with sugar, that preferences may not shift fundamentally. If this is the case, the low salt movement will always be vulnerable.
Health professionals, in exhorting us all to eat less salt, continue to underestimate the power of sodium chloride, NaCl, common table salt. Ferran Adrià, the high-tech chef at El Bulli, currently the world's most celebrated restaurant, keeps hundreds of jars of flavour specimens in his kitchen; but set apart from these, behind glass, is a small pot of salt. "That's to remind us that salt is the most important ingredient in the world," he says.
SENSOMETRICS IS THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS
(02) 9438 4111
WWW.SENSOMETRICS.COM