10th Meeting of the WHO Action Network on Salt Reduction in the Population in the European Region (ESAN) 2018. Meeting report (2019)

To help facilitate progress towards the globally agreed target to cut salt intakes by 30% by 2025, the WHO Action Network on Salt Reduction in the Population in the European Region (ESAN) was established in 2007. The 10th ESAN meeting took place from 12 - 13 September 2018 in Rome, hosted by the Ministry of Health of Italy and co-organized by the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office of Switzerland. The meeting welcomed 35 participants, including 17 country representatives, invited speakers and WHO staff.

Six countries gave an update on their national salt reduction strategies, and WHO Headquarters and the WHO Regional Office for Europe provided information about ongoing initiatives. Countries also presented their latest data on sodium in foods and salt intake. Invited speakers presented information on tools to improve consumer access to information, modelling the impact of salt taxes and novel approaches to collect food composition data from online supermarkets. The was also a discussion of the recent controversies on salt intake and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) which have undermined salt reduction efforts, despite the fact that the evidence supporting global action for a moderate reduction in salt consumption to prevent CVD remains strong. Participants exchanged scientific know-how about the monitoring of sodium intake and of the composition of foods, as well as sodium and nutrition labelling. It was agreed that ESAN and WHO would work together to update information on national salt reduction strategies, including detailed information about salt reduction targets set for different categories of foods.