Effort will focus on sodium content of processed foods. The FDA
intends to launch an effort that would reduce the amount of salt
contained in processed foods. The announcement follows the
release of a study by the Institute of Medicine that concludes
that consumer education efforts and attempts to get
manufacturers to voluntarily reduce the amount of salt in their
products have failed to achieve the desired reductions in sodium
consumption. Excessive sodium consumption has been linked to
hypertension and heart disease in some studies. The FDA effort
will take a number of years as regulators work with industry to
gradually condition Americans' palates to less salt in their
food by incrementally decreasing the amount of salt permitted in
processed foods.