As the federal government continues to focus on ways to reduce sodium in the American diet, IDFA and its members remain engaged in a variety of activities to demonstrate that new regulations may not be necessary and, in some cases, may not be plausible when it comes to cheese. Just this week, senior IDFA staff members met with several Food and Drug Administration representatives to discuss the dairy industry's initial progress on lowering sodium in cheese and to outline the challenges that remain.
Seven FDA officials, including representatives from the Center for Food Safety and Nutrition's Office of Food Additive Safety, met Wednesday with IDFA Senior Group Vice President Clay Hough and IDFA Vice Presidents Cary Frye and Ruth Saunders. The broad-ranging agenda included discussions on recommendations to reduce sodium intake that were issued last April by an Institute of Medicine committee. (See "FDA Should Set Limits for Sodium, Report Says.")
The IOM committee recommended a regulatory and mandatory strategy of lowering the sodium levels in foods in steps to allow consumer tastes to adjust to lower levels of salt and sodium in products over time. In its report, the IOM committee also encouraged the food industry to continue voluntary efforts to reduce sodium in foods. At this week's meeting, IDFA said the dairy industry is doing just that by offering consumers new reduced-sodium options, including successful reformulations from Sargento, Sartori and others.
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