The players in the sector have signed an agreement with the Ministries of Health and Agriculture to limit the amount of salt in bread, recognized as a public health issue.
Reduce the amount of salt present in bread by 10% in less than four years. This is the objective that bakery professionals have set themselves through an agreement signed last week with the General Directorates of Health and Food at the Salon de l’Agriculture. The Trade and Distribution Federation, Intermarché and Leclerc have also joined in this collective commitment by 2025.
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Concretely, the bakery sector promises to respect maximum thresholds of salt content in its breads from this year. Then these thresholds will be gradually lowered until 2025 to reach the objective of a general reduction of 10% in the quantity of salt in artisanal and industrial bread.
“We have been discussing the issue of salt in our products with the State for more than ten years. There, we reached a compromise with the State, which does not yet regulate the amount of salt in bread by law. But it is up to us to gradually reduce the quantities. This will allow us to reassure our customers and show that our breads are healthy”explains the president of the National Confederation of French Bakery-Pastry (CNBPF) Dominique Anract.
Public health issue
The representative recognizes the difficulty “to standardize the practices of the 33,000 French artisan bakers”, in addition to industrial manufacturers. The salt content of bread will thus be checked regularly in the years to come by the authorities. If the agreement does not achieve its objectives, a law on the salt content could see the light of day according to the president of the CNBPF.
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The bread represents “20% of the daily salt intake of the French” recalls the government press release which welcomes the agreement and makes a public health objective” for “lower blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and myocardial infarction”. France has thus made a commitment to the World Health Organization to reduce salt consumption in its population by 30% by 2025.
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