03 March 2026
Switching the Salt: Why Retailers Hold the Key to Reducing Sodium at Scale
As a member of The Consumer Goods Forum’s Healthier Lives Coalition, we value the opportunity to contribute to discussions that bring together global retailers and manufacturers around practical health solutions. We see the Coalition as an important forum to support , evidence-based interventions such as lower-sodium salt substitution.. In doing so, evidence moves closer to real-world action.
WHO has endorsed lower-sodium, potassium-enriched salt as a population-level solution to hypertension. The challenge now is implementation. We believe that retailers play a critical role in normalising healthier salt choices, helping turn policy into population-level impact.
LoSalt Director Caroline Klinge shared these perspectives at a recent in-person meeting of the CGF Healthier Lives Coalition.
Insights shared at the CGF Healthier Lives Coalition (October 2025)
High blood pressure affects more than 1.4 billion people worldwide and remains the leading preventable cause of death globally. Excess dietary sodium is the single most important dietary driver of raised blood pressure yet progress on salt reduction has stalled.
In response, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been clear: tackling hypertension now requires population-wide interventions that work with everyday behaviour.
In 2025, WHO issued new guidance on lower-sodium salt substitutes. Its message is simple and practical: when consumers use table salt, they should switch from regular salt to a potassium-enriched, lower-sodium alternative. This is groundbreaking as it reframes salt reduction away from reformulation alone and squarely towards what people buy and use at home. The intervention is deliberately simple: no new behaviour, no technical knowledge, just a straightforward swap of one familiar product for another.
Why retail matters
If the intervention is consumer-led, the lever is retail.
Today, reduced-sodium salts are often present on shelf, but they are rarely prominent. In many markets, they sit alongside multiple facings of standard table salt, framed as a niche or specialist alternative rather than the healthier default.
Retailers are uniquely positioned to change this. By rebalancing the salt set, increasing the visibility of lower-sodium options and reducing the dominance of standard table salt, retailers can make the healthier choice easier without disrupting how people shop.
This is precisely what WHO means by a population-level intervention.
A proven model for change
We have seen this approach succeed before. In the 1990s, WHO, UNICEF and partners transformed global nutrition through universal salt iodisation. By changing the default form of an everyday ingredient, iodine deficiency was rapidly reduced worldwide.
Today, the same ingredient offers a new opportunity, not for deficiency prevention but for cardiovascular health. The evidence for salt substitution is strong, and global momentum is building through national programmes, updated clinical guidelines and major new research initiatives.
The lesson from iodisation is clear: when healthier salt becomes the norm, population health follows.
The role of The Consumer Goods Forum
The Consumer Goods Forum is uniquely positioned to support this initiative. Within the Healthier Lives Coalition, this aligns directly with the Dietary Shifts workstream: making healthier choices more visible, more available and more desirable. Resetting the salt shelf is a tangible, measurable way to do exactly that.
Importantly, this is a low-risk intervention. Reduced-sodium salts look, taste and function like regular salt, are already accepted by consumers, and are stocked by major retailers globally. This is about switching regular table salt, not disrupting premium or culinary categories.
From retail normalisation to wider system change
Once consumer use of lower-sodium salt is normalised, the effects extend beyond the home. Increased consumer demand creates the conditions for broader uptake in food service, public procurement and, ultimately, manufacturing reformulation.
In this sense, retail acts as the catalyst. Manufacturers follow where consumer norms lead.
For more information about The Consumer Goods Forum Healthier Lives Coalition and its work, visit: https://www.theconsumergoodsforum.com/people/healthier-lives/