CSPI Slams Salty Menu Items

A Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) report examining the
sodium contents of popular restaurant meals has urged the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) to set “reasonable limits on the amounts of sodium that
can be used in various categories of food.” Although the 17 restaurant chains
under review reduced sodium in their menu items by an average of 6 percent
between 2009 and 2013, the consumer group singled out some companies
for allegedly increasing sodium in the sample meals analyzed for the report.
In particular, the report names the top 10 “saltiest meals in America” for both
adults and children, noting that “79 percent of the 81 adult meals in the study
still contained more than 1,500 milligrams (mg) of sodium,” with some meals
topping out at 5,000 mg of sodium.

“For far too long, the FDA has relied on a voluntary, wait-and-see approach
when it comes to reducing sodium in packaged and restaurant food,” said
CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson in a July 2, 2014, press release.
“If chains . . . are actually raising sodium levels in some meals, FDA’s current
approach clearly isn’t working.”

Issue 529