The US Food and Drug Administration announced on October 9 a final rule allowing salt substitutes in standardized foods whose standards of identity require or permit salt. The FDA said that 139 food standards previously allowed or required salt but did not permit substitutes, limiting manufacturers’ options to reduce sodium. The rule, published in the Federal Register on October 13, amends 80 standards.

The rule does not prescribe a particular substitute, a minimum replacement level or a sodium level for finished foods. Ingredients must be safe and suitable, perform salt’s functions in the food and preserve its basic nature; they must be declared by their common names on labels. The regulation gives manufacturers a reformulation option, but it does not guarantee how much sodium products will contain or what dietary outcomes consumers will experience.