Researchers Argue for Salt Warning Label

The World Hypertension League has issued a policy statement in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension arguing that salt sold for consumption “should be required to have a front of package health warning label.” The article argues that high sodium consumption has been linked to many negative health risks and that reducing excess sodium is a target of the World Health Organization. “Some countries have banned restaurants from putting salt shakers on tables to reduce spontaneous addition of sodium to foods and increase awareness of the dangers of high‐sodium diets (eg, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico City),” the policy statement asserts. “To our knowledge, no country has required actual packages and containers of sodium chloride (salt) to have warning labels.”

The organization argues that warning labels would have “several potential benefits”: (i) “it would increase awareness of the dangers of high‐sodium diets by people purchasing sodium and a reminder of the dangers by people seeing the containers at stores, food service establishments, or in the home”; (ii) “stores that sell sodium chloride may display sodium less prominently”; and (iii) “it could lead to a reduction in sodium consumption.”