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GUIDANCE DOCUMENT

Draft Guidance for Industry: Target Mean and Upper Bound Concentrations for Sodium in Commercially Processed, Packaged, and Prepared Foods for Voluntary Sodium Reduction Goals June 2016

Download the Draft Guidance Document Read the Federal Register Notice
Draft

Not for implementation. Contains non-binding recommendations.

Docket Number:
FDA-2014-D-0055
Issued by:
Guidance Issuing Office
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

Sodium[1] is widely present in the American diet (most commonly, but not exclusively, as a result of eating or drinking foods containing salt). Average sodium intake in the U.S. is approximately 3,400 milligrams/day (mg/day[2]). The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (Dietary Guidelines) (Ref. 1) and Healthy People 2020 (Ref. 2) advise people to consume less than or equal to 2,300 mg of sodium per day.

Approximately 75 percent of total sodium intake comes from processed and commercially prepared (e.g., restaurant) foods (Ref.3). This voluntary guidance aims to help Americans achieve the Dietary Guidelines-recommended sodium levels by encouraging food manufacturers, restaurants, and food service operations to reduce sodium in foods. It is intended to complement existing efforts by food manufacturers, restaurants, and food service operations to achieve these goals.

Download the Draft Guidance

Draft Food Categories and Draft Voluntary Targets for Sodium Reduction (Appendix Table 1) (XLSX: 43KB)

Summary Explanation of the Draft Food Categories and Draft Voluntary Targets for Sodium Reduction (Appendix Table 1) (PDF: 277KB)

1. In this document, we refer primarily to ‘‘sodium,’’ a component of sodium chloride, commonly known as ‘‘salt.’’ Most but not all sodium is added to food in the form of salt and we are interested in all sources of sodium added to foods.

2. The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans indicate that only 11% of the current population is meeting sodium recommendations.

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All written comments should be identified with this document's docket number: FDA-2014-D-0055.

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