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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1473362
This article is part of the Research Topic Hold the Salt: Dietary Sodium's Effect on Cardiovascular and Kidney Diseases View all 13 articles

Insights into the salt levels in bread offers in Slovenia: trends and differences

Provisionally accepted
Saša Kugler Saša Kugler 1,2*Hristo Hristov Hristo Hristov 3Urška Blaznik Urška Blaznik 1Maša Hribar Maša Hribar 3Edvina Hafner Edvina Hafner 3Anita Kušar Anita Kušar 3Igor Pravst Igor Pravst 3,4,5
  • 1 National Institute for Public Health, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 2 Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 3 Institute of Nutrition (Slovenia), Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 4 Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 5 Faculty of Applied Sciences (VIST), Ljubljana, Slovenia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: Bakery products are considered as one of main dietary sources of sodium/salt in Slovenia. Our main objective was to assess the salt content in bread in Slovenia, focusing into different bread categories and sales channels. The data collected in 2022 was compared with year 2012.A follow-up study on salt content of bread sold in Slovenia was conducted. Bread samples were purchased in large retail shops and smaller bakeries across 11 statistical regions of Slovenia. Sodium content was determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry; salt content was calculated by multiplying sodium content with 2.54, assuming all sodium corresponds to sodium chloride.In 2022, 178 bread samples were purchased and analysed. Weighted mean salt content in bread was 1.35 (95% CI 1.28-1.42) g/100 g in 2012, and 1.26 (95% CI 1.22-1.29) g/100 g in 2022, showing a 7% decrease. Notable differences in the salt content were observed between various bread subcategories and retail environments. In addition, a significant difference was observed between white wheat bread sold in large retail shops and smaller bakeries, where a higher salt content was observed.While study results show small decrease in the salt content in bread in Slovenia in last decade, the salt reduction targets set by the WHO have not been met. Additional efforts are needed to stimulate bread reformulation with reducing salt content.

    Keywords: Bread, Sodium, salt, ICP-MS, Slovenia

    Received: 30 Jul 2024; Accepted: 14 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kugler, Hristov, Blaznik, Hribar, Hafner, Kušar and Pravst. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Saša Kugler, National Institute for Public Health, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.