Table 4 Salt reduction policy and industrial practice
Sub-theme | Policy-makers | Food industries | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Salt reduction policy | Example of quotes | Industrial practice | Example of quotes | |
Reducing salt in food and food products | The MOH has promoted the salt reduction in the Malaysian Dietary Guideline | “…under the Malaysian Dietary Guideline Message No. 9 there is about less salt… (Female, Policy Maker/Ministry 3, WPM) | There are food industries that use salt substitutes/alternatives and technologies to reduce salt in the processed foods. However, there were some food industries do not have initiative to reduce the salt in their food products | “So far, we haven’t done reduction…”(Female, Food Industry/Soy sauce, EPM) “…replace part of the sodium with potassium…” (Male, Food Industry/Sauce, WPM) “…If I use anchovy, I will not add salt… (Female, Food Industry/Processed Food 1, EPM) “…I use retort…for this technology, we don’t have to use preservative…” (Female, Food Industry/Processed Food 2, EM) |
Sodium labelling | The mandatory salt labelling has been gazetted in 2020 | “…in July 2020 we have gazetted amendment on food regulation to make a declaration of sodium a mandatory.” (Female, Policy Maker/Ministry 3, WPM) | Sodium is being labelled on most processed foods, frozen foods, baby foods, beverages and fast foods but not on food products that being sold in bulk | “…we make according to US standard, so need to have sodium content…” (Male, Food Industry/Beverage, NPM) “…we sell in bulk… so we don’t label because our reseller will repack…” (Male, Food Industry/Wholes Seller Snacks, WPM) |
Food reformulation | The government has engaged the food industries to reformulate the food products | “…actually in 2018… Amendment of the salt regulation on soy sauce from 10 to 7% was gazetted” (Female, Policy Maker/Ministry 3, WPM) | There were also food industries that have reformulated their food product to reduce the salt content | “… for 25 kg flour, I used 1.5 kg salt. Then I did R&D to reduce the salt. Now I just use 400 g…” (Male, Food Industry/Noodle, EM) |
Training | The MOH have conducted Health Catering Training to teach the cooks on salt reduction in cooking | “…we have been conducting ‘Health Catering’ training…We teach the food operators to reduce salt in foods…” (Female, Policy Maker/Ministry 2, WPM) | The food industries have attended the training conducted by the government to use salt in appropriate amount | “…when I attended course by FAMA, the officer said that I can add more salt to increase shelf life, but don’t follow my preference…as more salts would increase saltiness and increase cost too” (Female, Food Industry/Processed Food 2, EPM) |
Awareness campaign | The MOH together with the non-governmental organizations have conducted the salt reduction campaign | “…we work closely with the Ministry of Health in their campaign to reduce salt intake…” (Female, Policy Maker/NGO 1, WPM) | ||
Recognition and incentives | Healthier Choice Logo and MyChoice Logo were given to healthy foods while BESS-Bersih (clean), Selamat (safe) and Sihat (healthy) certificate were granted to premises that provide healthy foods | “.…one of the criteria in the Healthier Choice Logo for certain food is the salt (sodium) …” (Female, Policy Maker/Ministry 2, WPM) “… MyChoice Logo, the requirements are reduced sugar, reduced salt… (Female, Policy Maker/Researcher 7, WPM) “… we have a certification called BESS…” (Female, Policy Maker/Ministry 3, WPM) | ||