EC Nutrition

In 2019, 19.1 million adults aged 30-79 years were with hypertension and the average sodium consumption among Nigerian adults has been estimated to be 2.8g per day, which exceeds the WHO’s daily recommendation. An effective way of reducing dietary sodium intake is by establishing sodium benchmarks for major food categories. Fat spread is believed to be a major source of sodium in the diet. This study assesses the likely intakes of sodium and impact of adopting the WHO global sodium benchmark from fat spread. The level of sodium and serving size of fat spread were estimated from on-pack nutrition labels of six (6) brands available in the open markets and supermarkets in Nigeria. Comparison of the estimated dietary intake was made with the Nutrient Reference Value - Noncommunicable Disease (NRV-NCD) for Sodium. The average sodium content of per 100g of fat spread was 0.9g, estimated dietary sodium intakes for consumption levels of 10g, 20g, 30g, 40g, 50g and 60g per day were 0.09g, 0.18g, 0.27g, 0.36g, 0.44g and 0.54g per day. There was a 56% sodium intake reduction if the WHO global sodium benchmark were adopted. These findings suggest that fat spread is high in sodium and contributes significantly to total daily intake of sodium. The adoption of the WHO global sodium benchmark, as well as regulation of marketing and low-fat claim could serve as additional policy measure to reduce sodium intake from the spread.

 Keywords: WHO Global Sodium Benchmarks; Nutrient Profile Model; Fat Spread; Sodium Intake Assessment

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