Sodium content in processed foods in Argentina: compliance with the national law

There is compelling evidence of the close relationship between excess sodium intake, raised blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) (1-4). In fact, excess sodium intake has been reported to cause 3.1 million deaths 5.6% of premature deaths and 2.4% of disability (62 million DALYs) globally (4-6). In Argentina, CVD is the first cause of death in the general population with 94,099 deaths per year (7). According to a study conducted in Argentina about the burden of disease attributable to cardiovascular risk factors, 37% of all cardiovascular deaths are attributable to hypertension (8). Furthermore, data from the National Risk Factor Survey showed that 34.1% of the adult population is hypertensive (9). Sodium intake is also estimated to be at least double of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of 2,000 mg/day (10) as it is the case of other countries (11-14) in the region. According to data from the National Ministry of Health (MoH), salt consumption per person is approximately 12 g/day (15)