FDA and related tracking systems concerned with sodium

Abstract

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services have developed a five-point set of sodium initiatives aimed at moderation of sodium consumption, improved sodium-related information for consumers and health professionals, and improved consumer choice in the marketplace. Implimentation is fundamentally based on a voluntary premise, and indications to date are that the program is working. FDA has established a series of tracking systems to measure change over time, particularly relative to changes in the sodium content of the food supply, in the sodium content of American diets, in sodium labeling — both quantitative and qualitative, in consumer understanding of the sodium-and-hypertension problem, and in consumer food purchasing practices. Some of these efforts are conducted in cooperation with other Federal agencies such as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Department of Agriculture. The epidemiological approach to measurement of the prevalence of hypertensive disease as provided by the periodic National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys is at the center of all other tracking systems to measure effectiveness of the national effort to reduce sodium intakes and thereby hopefully moderate the magnitude and severity of hypertensive disease as a major public health problem in the United States.