**3. Results**

#### *3.1. Data Description and General Overview*

A total of 3897 products were collected from 2017 to 2021, belonging to 169 well identified brands and classified into groups as in Table S1. As shown in Table 2, the most abundant food groups were dairies and substitutes (G5), sweets (G16) and the one-type of ingredient group (G10). The least abundant was that of fats (G6).


**Table 2.** Foods included in the study and foods with sodium/salt content displayed.

<sup>1</sup> Calculated as: No foods with sodium/salt content within each group × 100/Total No foods within each group. <sup>2</sup> Calculated as: Total No foods with sodium/salt content × 100/Total No foods surveyed.

> Of the total population, 93.3% displayed the sodium or salt content (Table 2), while 263 foods did not. Precooked and ready-to-eat food (G13) displayed the sodium/salt content in all the items, while the one-type of ingredient group (G10) only in 70.7% of the cases. In 18 foods (0.5%) an error was detected. Therefore, a total of 3616 foods were subsequently used for further analysis.

> The sodium content fell below 2500 mg in all items, except for 10 foods (Figure S1). For these, the values were in the range of 3480–5200 mg sodium/100 g and eight of them were canned anchovies (Figure S1—insert). Median sodium content was highest for meat processed and derivatives (G8), followed by snacks (G15) and sauces (G14) (Table 3). Five groups had median sodium values below 50 mg/100 g: dairies and substitutes (G5), nonalcoholic drinks (G9), one-type of ingredient (G10), pasta (G12) and sweets (G16) (Table 3). These groups displayed a narrow dispersion of values (Figure S1). In fact, foods in G10 (one type of ingredient) and G12 (pasta) had no added salt. Two powdered milk in G5

**Food Groups No Foods Mean Sodium (mg/100 g) SD (mg/100 g) Sodium Percentiles (mg/100 g) Min 25th 50th (Median) 75th Max** Total 3616 327.8 431.9 0 32 172 520 5200 G1 144 442.3 236.3 4 339 440 560 1240 G2 104 239.5 119.5 0 169 256 345 480 G3 355 276.8 200.7 0 152 252 356 1120 G4 165 606.2 328.3 32 400 560 748 2100 G5 465 53.2 35.1 4 40 48 60 520 G6 58 186.1 244.6 0 32 52 295 1000 G7 255 692 786.6 40 400 560 600 5200 G8 280 999.2 414.6 400 720 840 1230 3480 G9 246 13.8 42.1 0 0 4 12 400 G10 276 22.7 33.1 0 4 12 30.5 212 G11 129 324.3 284.4 0 140 320 400 2000 G12 136 22.9 22.9 0 12 12 27 120 G13 223 408.1 219.3 20 248 392 520 1440 G14 75 691.8 320.8 44 480 600 816 1960 G15 274 691.1 360 0 440 680 920 2500 G16 431 45.9 68.5 0 0 28 64 576

(dairies and substitutes) and four tomato juices in G9 (non-alcoholic drinks) (with added salt) were exceptions with unusually high sodium content (Figure S1).

**Table 3.** Sodium content by food group.

SD: Standard deviation.

Some other interesting results could be observed in Table 3. The sodium content of some particular food types was also calculated and shown in Table S2. In spite of their sweet taste, cereal sweet derivatives (G3) had considerable amounts of sodium, corresponding to added salt. Breakfast cereals and bars had the lowest values within this group (Table S2). Cheese (G4) could be classified into two types: fresh/soft cheese had lower sodium content than mature (Table S2). Dairies had slightly higher sodium content than substitutes and emulsion-based sauces had lower values than the rest of the foods in this group (Table S2). The sodium content of cereal-based snacks was higher than for nuts and vegetables (Table S2).

For precooked and ready-to-eat food (G13), the sodium content per serving recommended by the manufacturer could be calculated for 141 products (Table S3). The median sodium content per serving was 507.5 mg. The percentage of the daily reference intake (RI) was determined for all of them and the median was 25.4% (Table S3).
