**4. Methods for Sodium Content Reduction in Bakery Products**

With the growing interest of consumers in a healthy diet, their concern for low-salt products has also increased. This is also due to the media regularly sending messages about the diseases caused by excessive consumption of sodium chloride and its impact on the human body. An example of this is the "Salt Kills" campaign, in which the UK government regularly reports on the harmful effects of excessive salt consumption [59].

According to Powles et al. [60], the average global level of sodium consumption in 2010 was approximately 3.95 g/day, with a specific regional intake of 2.18 to 5.51 g/day. This value is almost twice the limit of 2 g sodium/day (equivalent to 5 g/day of salt intake) recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) [61].

Salt consumption among adults in most European countries varies between 7 and 13 g per day, according to the European Commission. Germany, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Latvia reported the lowest salt intake (6.3–7.3 g/day), while the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary and Portugal reported the highest salt intake (12.3–13.6 g/day). It seems that are different levels of salt intake in Europe, the lowest values being noticed in Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium (8.3–8.8 g/day) and the highest in Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Portugal and Italy (10.7–11.2 g/day) [5].

It was concluded that from all the risk factors related to our diet, a diet high in sodium accounted for the highest number of deaths from all the analyzed causes. Most people consume more salt than the World Health Organization's maximum daily salt recommendation of <5 g per day, with an average overall salt intake of about 10 g/day. The daily intake of salt in most countries varies between 9–12 g, which is far above the recommendations of the World Health Organization. It is estimated that the overall reduction in sodium intake to the

recommendation levels would prevent approximately 2.5 million deaths annually, which has led WHO Member States to agree to reduce the sodium intake of the population by 30% until 2025 [62]. A decrease in salt intake by 3 g/day would reduce systolic blood pressure by 5 mm Hg at the age of 60, hence a decrease in stroke and myocardial infarction. Many studies in Germany, Canada and France have shown a correlation between left cardiac ventricular mass and salt intake (assessed by urinary sodium excretion). These negative effects of salt appear to be independent of blood pressure. In addition, the role of sodium in osteoporosis has been demonstrated since the 1970s [11]. Since 2013, World Health Organization member states have committed to reduce the population's salt intake by 30% until 2025 [63]. Many countries have initiated salt reduction interventions, and a number of reviews have shown some progress in reducing salt intake among the population. To further support countries in implementing salt reduction interventions and achieving a reduction in salt intake among the population, the World Health Organization published the SHAKE technical package for salt reduction in 2016, consisting of implementation strategies in five key areas, including surveillance, product reformulation through lower salt intake, labeling, consumer education, etc. Continuous monitoring and evaluation of these efforts is essential to strengthen policies and actions to reduce salt consumption.

The main sources of salt are bread, cheese, meat and meat products, snacks, sauces, soups and pastries. Redeveloping these types of foods to reduce salt content (or improving/reformulating foods) is considered a promising strategy for reducing the dietary intake of salt. In order to reduce the salt intake of a certain population, large-scale structural efforts are needed to reduce the salt content of foodstuffs at the time of production, as well as to initiate behavioral changes. The World Health Organization encourages a multisectoral approach, including public-private partnerships to improve the composition of the food supply [12].

However, traditional culinary habits and consumers' preference for salty taste creates difficulty to the initiative to reduce the consumption of salt in food products. That is why research is underway for different solutions to reduce the content of sodium chloride in food products to be accepted by a large mass of consumers [64]. The gradual reduction in sodium levels by various food industry producers has been somewhat successful, which has been reported by the Food and Drink Federation and the British Retail Consortium. The strategy entitled "reduction in small steps" aims to slowly and gradually to reduce the salt content in manufacturing recipes without notifying the consumers [12].

Bread is one of the main sources of salt in the world and that is why some countries are trying to reduce the sodium content of the general consumption of the population by reducing it in bread. For example, in New Zealand, there has been a 7% reduction in salt content in bread products for four years. In Ireland, through a salt reduction program, the bakery industry set 0.45 g of salt per 100 g of bread as the average value for white and dark bread. In 2007, as part of the second national nutrition and health program, a third of bakeries in France reported a reduction in the amount of salt addition in bread. Similarly, in 2005, the Spanish Confederation of Bakeries agreed to reduce the salt content of bread from 22 to 18 g to 100 g, reducing, on average, 1 g/kg of flour per year. Thus, evidence from various countries shows that salt reduction programs in bakery products are efficient, as part of a cost-effective strategy for improving public health [65].

Studies have shown that a lot of effort has been made to reduce sodium in bread. The salt content of bread in the UK decreased by about 20% from 2001 to 2011 (from 1.23 to 0.98 g/100 g). By 2011, 71% of all bakeries met FSA targets of ≤1 g/100 g, while in 2001 only 25% of all bakeries met this limit [5]. In terms of feasibility and marketing, it seems that salt reduction can be achieved in most bakery products [12]. Different strategies of salt reduction in bakery products are shown it Table 2.


**Table 2.** Strategies of salt reduction in bakery products.


**Table 2.** *Cont.*

The difficulties of sodium replacement in bakery products are due in especially to the salty taste produced by it. This taste in produced by the specificity of the Na+ ions on the epithelial channel known as ENaC (epithelial sodium channel). The primary process by which salty taste is detected is due to epithelial sodium channel receptors that respond almost exclusively to sodium ions (Na+). Therefore, the central gustatory system and mesolimbic structures are needed to process the taste signal and hedonic responses to food. A consequence of stimulating the reward pathways of the brain is palatability, which suggests that an individual's preference may be associated with the hedonic neuronal properties of salty foods [97]. Further, are presented in a detailed way the best solutions reported so far to reduce sodium chloride from bread making.
