Around three in five consumers, globally say they are always or often influenced by a product’s impact on their health and wellbeing when choosing food. When considering what is “healthy” these consumers are primarily thinking about products which are natural, or offer a balanced nutritional profile in terms of nutrient content including fat, sugar and salt. The food industry is under significant pressure to reduce the salt content of processed food products to help improve consumer health globally. However, this need for reformulation also brings significant manufacturing challenges given salt's key role in providing flavor, texture, and preservation.

Opportunities to capitalize on demand for reduced salt (sodium) formulations using on-trend and emerging ingredients
Salt and sodium are often used interchangeably in nutritional labelling, depending on the terminology consumers are familiar with in particular markets. For example, in the US sodium  (the nutrient) is commonly used on labelling, while in Europe it is salt (the ingredient). The primary focus of this report is to identify ways to replace salt as an ingredient, which will in turn have a positive implications for the amount of sodium contained in products. Therefore terminology used for this report will primarily refer to “salt” reduction rather than “sodium” reduction.