It would appear that the restaurant industry can no longer afford to take the sodium issue with a grain of salt. Early last summer it was reported in Nation’s Restaurant News that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, at the behest of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, had convened a public hearing to determine whether the use of sodium should be regulated in food preparation. At the time, both the CSPI and the American Medical Association said they favored reducing by half the use of salt in restaurant and prepared foods.
Since then the campaign to restrict the use of common salt as a food ingredient has become, well, more common. New York City officials, led by influential health commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden, have met with representatives of the food and restaurant industries to discuss the future of salt content in food. Frieden, if you will recall, already has notched some consequential victories by banning smoking and the use of trans fats, and mandating menu labeling in New York City restaurants.
Nor is Frieden alone in wanting to establish salt as the next big ingredient flash point. In addition to New York, officials in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Seattle and other jurisdictions in Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Tennessee have salt on their radar screens as well.
Moreover, the CSPI has vowed to press the issue in state and local jurisdictions around the country, while also leaving open the possibility of an ingredient-related lawsuit against a targeted restaurant chain.
The growing chorus of sodium naysayers maintains that Americans simply are ingesting way too much salt, which has been linked in some individuals to high blood pressure, hypertension and cardio-vascular disease. Health officials claim that sodium levels in food items have risen exponentially since the 1970s. New York’s health department, in fact, has set an eventual goal of reducing each individual’s average daily intake of sodium from 3,500 milligrams to 2,300 milligrams, in keeping with nutritional guidelines. The result, officials contend, would be a considerable reduction in health care costs and the prevention of 150,000 premature deaths a year.
To be truthful, in the past, a challenge like that would have set the industry’s alarm bells ringing frantically. This time, though, things feel a little different. While many operators do not necessarily agree with everything these sodium reductionists are saying, we are not exactly seeing the industry circle the wagons and hunker down for a tussle like we would have seen in the past. In fact, some operators already are taking measures to pre-empt any possible sodium-centric regulations.
Most recently, Spartanburg, S.C.-based family-dining specialist Denny’s sent salt packing in several of its menu selections. It cut the amount of salt in its hash browns and shrimp skewers by 25 percent and in its cheese sauce by 20 percent. In addition, it removed higher-sodium selections from its kids’ menus, and replaced them with fruits and vegetables.
Denny’s is not alone in its proactive salt stance. Miami-based Burger King last year vowed to reduce the sodium content in its kids’ meals by 60 percent. Other foodservice operators, including Au Bon Pain, KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, also are exploring alternatives as well.
Frank Guidara, president and chief executive of Uno Chicago Grill and a member of the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Roundtable, said the West Roxbury, Mass.-based casual dinnerhouse brand started looking at the sodium content of its menu selections in 2007. The plans are to examine every recipe for sodium content.
Guidara cautioned, however, that removing salt from recipes is not a matter of simple subtraction, noting that every new item on the Uno menu has to go through a battery of taste tests. “You can’t compromise taste,” he said.
At the same time, there are those who argue that all of this brouhaha concerning sodium is unwarranted, and that only a very few people are being affected by salt content. Richard Berman, president of Berman & Co., a Washington, D.C.-based research and communication firm with an emphasis on food and beverage issues, calls it “exaggerated,” and adds, “Salt to the average American is not an issue.”
And while that might well be true, it probably would not be sensible for the restaurant community to ignore the sodium issue and assume that it will fade away with time. Many believe it’s here to stay, and while the foodservice industry needs to remind lawmakers that salt is a naturally occurring ingredient and necessary for taste and food production, it also should take an earnest look at the realities of salt reduction in menu items.
Hopefully, the issue will be resolved without the necessity of lawmakers passing mandatory salt reduction rules.
But then, given the trend toward increased regulation around the country, operators also might want to throw a little salt over their shoulders for good luck.
