The following is part of the Sodium Reduction Communications Toolkit developed by Resolve to Save Lives and Global Health Advocacy Incubator, with technical inputs from World Health Organization. Resources are intended for advocates, communications teams, global health leaders, and others interested in protecting heart health and reducing cardiovascular disease through a lower-sodium food environment.
A comprehensive sodium reduction policy that includes multiple interventions that target sources for excess salt consumption is best-practice to improve population-level health and save lives. Global resources support governments and policymakers to address barriers and find levers specific to key interventions:
Salt targets
- WHO Global sodium benchmarks for different food categories, 2nd ed
- Position paper: Mandatory sodium reduction targets for processed foods
- 10 Best Practices for Setting Sodium Reduction Targets
- Salt targets fact sheet – coming soon!
Nutrient profile models
- Position paper: Nutrient Profile Models: A valuable tool for developing healthy food policies
- WHO Regional Office for Europe nutrient profile model: second edition (2023)
- WHO Nutrient profile model for the African region (2019)
- WHO Nutrient profile model for South-east Asia region (2017)
- WHO Nutrient profile model for the Western Pacific region (2016)
- Best Practices for Adopting and Implementing a Nutrient Profile Model
- Interactive NPM calculator – coming soon!
Front-of-package warning labels
- WHO’s front-of-package labelling guidelines – coming soon!
- Front-of-package labeling systems
- Front-of-Package Warning Labeling: A Policy Tool to Control and Prevent Diet-Related Noncommunicable Diseases
- What’s in Our Food? A guide to introducing effective front-of-package nutrient labels
- Designing Front-of-Package Labels to Inform Consumers and Encourage Healthier Food Choices in Bangladesh: A Qualitative Study
Lower-sodium salts
- Use of lower-sodium salt substitutes: WHO guideline
- Research prioritization to scale-up lower-sodium salts report
- Lower-sodium salt substitutes: FAQ
- Increasing uptake of lower-sodium salts
- Potassium-enriched salt substitutes: supporting global cardiovascular and kidney health
- White paper: Low-sodium salt substitutes for hypertension and cardiovascular disease control in India
- Join the Switch the Salt Alliance – coming soon!
Healthy public food procurement and service policies
- Action framework on public food procurement and service policies
- Policies and interventions to create healthy school food environments: WHO guideline
- Guide to developing nutrition standard
- Healthy public food procurement and service resource library
Fiscal policies
- Fiscal policies to promote healthy diets: WHO guideline
- Getting Fiscal Policies Right: Lessons and recommendations across NCD risk factors
- Unhealthy food tax in the Philippines could save lives and money
- Industry narratives on health taxes—and what the evidence says
- Should health tax revenue be earmarked?
Marketing restrictions
- Policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing: WHO guideline
- Nutrient profile model for the marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages to children in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (2017)
- Selling a sick future: countering harmful marketing to children and young people across risk factors for NCDs
