Background

Sodium reduction

Published: 03/02/2021

The ACFM is the association of the UK’s leading breakfast cereal manufacturers, which includes Cereal Partners, Dailycer, Jordans (including Dorset Cereals), Kellogg’s, Morning Foods, Quaker (a PepsiCo brand) and Weetabix.

Members of the Association of Cereal Food Manufacturers (ACFM) started their journey to reduce salt in their branded products 16 years ago to respond to the UK Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) call for voluntary salt reduction targets; these were developed in the context of a public health campaign to achieve the 6g daily intake target.

Since then, ACFM has been reporting their results – the average (sales weighted) sodium levels in branded breakfast cereals – annually, based on a calculation methodology endorsed by FSA.

In 1998, ACFM members’ average content of sodium per 100g was 0.576g. As of the end of 2014, on average, members’ branded breakfast cereals contained 0.204g of sodium per 100g.

This represents a 65% reduction since 1998.

ACFM member companies will continue to engage directly with the authorities on their salt reformulation strategy and report on the progress made and will continue to report yearly on the sales weighted average figures.

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