Strategies to Reduce Salt Content and Its Effect on Food Characteristics and Acceptance: A Review

Abstract

Sodium is a necessary nutrient for regulating extracellular fluid and transferring molecules around cell membranes with essential functions. However, the prevalence of some diseases is related to unnecessary sodium intake. As a result, a particular problem for the food industry remains a matter of sodium content in foods. It is considered that customer acceptance is associated with salt perception dynamics related to the evolution of food production. It is a significant challenge and technique to minimize the salt content of various foods and provide replacement products with substantial reductions in salt levels. This review summarizes salt reduction strategies related to health problems based on traditional review methodology, with practical and methodological screening performed to determine the appropriate reference sources. Various technological (salt replacement, food reformulation, size and structural modifications, alternative processing, and crossmodal odor interaction) and behavioral strategies (memory process, gradual salt reduction, and swap) are identified in this work, including a deeper understanding of the principles for reducing sodium content in foods and their effect on food characteristics and potential opportunities for the food industry. Thereby, the food industry needs to find the proper combination of each strategy’s advantages and disadvantages to reduce salt consumption while maintaining product quality.