Baking & Snack - April 2010 - 10

EDITORIAL

Innovation Through Adversity

or bakers of bread and rolls, sodium represents a critical problem. The current
recommendation is to consume no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day, but
the average intake is 3,400 mg. Grain products (led by bread and rolls) account
for 730 mg, or 21% of total sodium intake, the largest source of any food category." This, taken from the March 26 issue of The Bakery Newsletter, lays it out in a
nutshell. For snack manufacturers, the problem is a bit more "visible," but one where
solutions might also be a bit more realistic. For bread, salt is a functional ingredient,
important to many quality attributes. For snacks, it is used more for fl avor enhancement and aesthetics. In both cases, however, the sodium issue is a real problem.
Public health authorities around the world are challenging food manufacturers on
salt levels, too. In Australia, for example, George Weston Foods, Goodman Fielder
Baking, Allied Mills, Cripps Nubake, Woolworths, Coles and ALDI have agreed to
reduce sodium in bread products to 400 mg per 100 g by the end of 2013. Also, readyto-eat breakfast cereals from The Kellogg Company, Sanitarium, Cereal Partners
Worldwide, Woolworths, Coles and ALDI will see their sodium content cut by 15%
over the next four years.
In America's fight to control the obesity epidemic as well as finding scapegoats
for heart disease and hypertension, it won't be long before congressional action is
proposed and finalized to mandate sodium limits, and I predict bread and snacks
will be the fall guys. However, with adversity comes opportunities, inspirations for
innovation and partnerships.
Now is the time to hunker down, work within your R&D departments, involve
suppliers and be diligent. Like food safety, trans fat and other issues important to
consumers, showing the public health community (i.e., the Food and Drug Administration) that your company and the baking and snack industries are actively
pursuing and succeeding in reducing sodium in product lines will go a long way to
postpone regulations.
The issue of sodium will not be like the Atkins attack on the industry seven years
ago. It will not fade away, get disproven or stand down to industry rebuttals. As the
newsletter stated, "As other food categories cut back, grain-based foods will stand out
more and more as a major sodium source. If bakers choose to do nothing, they will fall
further behind other food groups, leaving baked foods vulnerable to attack."
I welcome your comments on this and other topics. Join our Baking & Snack group
on LinkedIn to post your comments. Start a discussion and request input from your
peers. Now, you also can comment on any story, news or feature in this magazine at
www.bakingbusiness.com.
- Steve Berne, editor
sberne@sosland.com
http://twitter.com/BakingSnackMag
www.LinkedIn.com (Baking & Snack)

EDITORIAL STAFF
Executive Editor
Laurie Gorton
lgorton@sosland.com
Editor
Steve Berne
sberne@sosland.com
Managing Editor

Holly Bradley
hbradley@sosland.com
Shane Whitaker
swhitaker@sosland.com

Senior Editor
Senior Associate Editor
Associate Editor
Contributing Editors:

Columnists:

Jennifer Barnett Fox
jfox@sosland.com
Kimberlie Clyma
kclyma@sosland.com
Donna Berry
Rebeca López-García
Richard F. Stier

Jim Kline
jkline@theensolgroup.com
Theresa Cogswell
bakercogs@sbcglobal.net
Anne Giesecke, PhD
info@a-dpolicyanalysis.com

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BAKING & SNACK / April 2010

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Baking & Snack - April 2010

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