Nutrition groups set sights on sodium as next menu battleground

By PAUL  FRUMKIN

WASHINGTON (June  30, 2008 )
—Even as policy makers and consumer groups across the nation continue to
press for bans on the use of artificial trans fats, observers say the
foodservice industry’s next big ingredient flashpoint already could be shaping
up in the form of common salt.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, at the urging of the Center
for Science in the Public Interest, late last year convened a public hearing to
help determine whether the use of sodium should be regulated in food
preparation. The agency continues to collect comments on the issue. The
Washington, D.C.-based CSPI favors reducing by half the use of salt in
restaurant and prepared foods.

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In addition, Michael Jacobson, CSPI’s executive director, said his
organization is discussing the issue with state and city health commissioners in
an effort to jumpstart similar initiatives at the local level.

Jacobson also said CSPI has not ruled out filing an
ingredient-related lawsuit against a restaurant chain, similar to the one the
nutrition watchdog group leveled against target=" _blank">KFC and its use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil two
years ago. Industry officials say it was only a matter of time before salt—which
has been linked to high blood pressure, hypertension and cardiovascular disease
in some individuals—hit the food-activist radar screens.

“We have been saying for several years that after trans fat, there
was going to be a race to see if salt or caffeine would take center stage,” said
Rick Berman, president of Berman and Co., a Washington, D.C.-based research and
communication firm with an emphasis on food and beverage issues. “It looks like
we can no longer take the threat with a grain of salt.”

But where the trans-fat issue caught many in the restaurant
industry off guard, a growing number of operators already are beginning to
address salt content in their food rather than wait for legislation to force
their hands.

For example, target=" _blank">Au Bon Pain and target=" _blank">Uno Chicago Grill have been working to reduce the sodium
content in menu items for more than a year.

“We don’t see this as a trend,” said Ed Frechette, senior vice
president of marketing for fast-casual Au Bon Pain. “This one won’t just come
and go.”

The target=" _blank">National Restaurant Association in Washington, D.C., also
is addressing growing concerns about salt by hosting a conference titled
“Nutrient Essentials: Sodium and the Healthy Plate” in Chicago July 9–11.

“There has been a lot of attention on sodium over the past year,
which goes along with a wave of singling out specific nutrition messages,” said
Sheila Weiss, the NRA’s director of nutrition policy. “It’s confusing to the
public when the focus is on individual nutrients. You just can’t keep changing
the health message every year. A holistic approach to health is the way to
go.”

Weiss voiced concern that “with the way policy makers and local
government officials are looking at nutrition policy these days, [sodium] could
turn into the next artificial trans fat.”

“It’s an entirely different issue,” she said. “Salt is necessary
for food production, for taste. We’d like to make the FDA understand that the
industry has already made strides in reducing salt in food.”

The CSPI, nevertheless, says lawmakers must act to reduce the
amount of salt in restaurant and prepared foods. The group urges the FDA to
revoke salt’s status as “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS, and reclassify
it as a food additive.

The American Medical Association also has called for a 50-percent
reduction in the use of sodium in food, estimating that 75 percent to 80 percent
of the average daily intake of sodium comes from processed or restaurant
foods.

Berman counters, however, that the argument to reduce salt in the
diet is exaggerated.

“Only a very small group of people are being affected by it,” he
said. “Low-sodium diets are like gluten-free diets—clearly, there are people
with salt sensitivity. But salt in the average American is not an issue. It is
an overstated concern with far-reaching solutions that have no relationship to
broad health realities.

“This is all about activist groups telling you how to prepare your
food and what you can sell. It may get to a point where you can’t have a salt
shaker on the table unless you request it.”

Yet Jacobson maintains that in terms of health, sodium is “a
bigger problem than trans fat.”

“The best thing would be if the industry makes it a priority,” he
said. “Restaurateurs have made tremendous progress on trans fat.”

Some restaurateurs already are examining the use of salt in their
food preparations. Uno Chicago Grill, the 200-plus-unit casual-dining operator
in West Roxbury, Mass., started looking at the sodium content of its menu items
18 months ago, said president and chief executive Frank Guidara.

Guidara, who also is a member of the Harvard School of Public
Health Nutrition Roundtable, said every recipe eventually will be scrutinized.
So far, it has cut the salt in several items, including its Italian Wedding Soup
and Vegetarian Soup, and is in the process of adjusting its salad dressings, he
said.

Guidara cautions that reducing salt in recipes can be
difficult.

“Every new item has to go through a battery of taste tests,” he
said. “You can’t compromise taste.”

Au Bon Pain also has been working to remove some of the salt from
its menu items, Frechette said. The chain recently switched to an all-natural
chicken product with reduced sodium, he said. It also is gradually reformulating
its soups. It has nearly cut in half the amount of sodium in its French onion
soup, which previously had “almost an entire daily recommendation in one
serving,” Frechette said.

“This is an important thing to monitor,” he said.

The NRA’s Weiss said the trade group is hosting the conference to
engage “with chains, suppliers, regulatory officials, the research community and
other stakeholders and help our members take a multifaceted look at sodium.”