Source: www.nytimes.com
NEW YORK, May 29, 2010: With salt under attack for its ill effects on the nation’s health, the food giant Cargill kicked off a campaign last November to spread its own message. “Salt is a pretty amazing compound,” Alton Brown gushes about it. But by all appearances, this is a moment of reckoning for salt. High blood pressure is rising among adults and children.
The industry is working overtly and behind the scenes to fend off these attacks, using a shifting set of tactics that have defeated similar efforts for 30 years, records and interviews show. Industry insiders call the strategy “delay and divert” and say companies have a powerful incentive to fight back: they crave salt as a low-cost way to create tastes and textures. Beyond its own taste, salt also masks bitter flavors and counters a particular taste that is a side effect of processed food production, often described as “cardboard taste” or “damp dog hair.”
Government health experts estimate that deep cuts in salt consumption could save 150,000 lives a year.