[Reason for dietary salt reduction and potential effect on population health--WHO recommendation].

It is well known that reduction of salt results in lowering blood pressure and cardiovascular incidents. Daily salt is double the recommended daily quantity and mainly comes from processed food. The assessment of daily salt intake for Croatia is 12 g/day (WHO recommendation is <5 g/day). The main source of sodium is processed food and food prepared in restaurants (77%), natural content of sodium in food (12%), added salt at table (6%) and prepared meals at home (5%). Reduction of salt by 50% would save nearly 180,000 lives per year in Europe. It is necessary to establish better collaboration with food manufacturers in order to reduce the content of salt in processed food and to achieve appropriate salt intake per day in accordance with the WHO recommendation. Further, it is necessary to encourage food manufacturers to produce food and meals with low or reduced salt content (shops, catering, changes in recipes, offer salt substitutions). This kind of collaboration is based on bilateral interests that can result in positive health effects. One of the most important public health tasks is to educate consumers and to give them choice when buying food. This can be achieved by effective campaigns and social marketing, by ensuring a declaration of salt content on the product, or specially designed signs for food products with low or reduced salt content.