There are good reasons why the food industry adds certain ingredients to its products and most of them have to do with money. Salt, for instance, increases the shelf-life of products, adds to taste and makes them easier - and therefore cheaper - to manufacture.
But salt has also been linked to increased blood pressure, which in turn is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. For this reason, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland wants to reduce the amount we consume from 10g a day at present to six grams by 2010 (the recommended dietary allowance is four grams).
The problem is that 75 per cent of our salt intake is involuntary, because it is in the processed food we consume. Cutting salt intake, therefore, requires the co-operation of industry and this has to be voluntary, as the EU would interpret any compulsion as a barrier to trade.
To date, cuts of 10 per cent have been achieved as part of a "gradual and sustained" programme of salt reduction agreed with industry, according to FSAI's Dr Wayne Anderson. Scientific evidence shows people can be weaned off their desire for salt in just six weeks, but Anderson warns "if we take salt out
too quickly, people will add it back at the table, rather than recalibrating their palettes".
Agreement has yet to be reached on further progress towards the target, and Neil McGowan of Food and Drink Industry Ireland says that in the long-term the FSAI will have to rethink its strategy. "We're
heading for a brick wall. If you're talking about mass production, there's no way you can have, for example, salt-free bread . . ."
He points out that bread, the main source of salt in our diet, is actually low in salt. The problem is we consume a lot of it. "The context has to be an overall healthy lifestyle. It's difficult to just pick on one product."
Fat is another controversial constituent of food products. Consumption of saturated fat, trans fat and dietary cholesterol raises cholesterol levels that increase risk of heart disease. In contrast, unsaturated fats do not raise cholesterol. In the US, the authorities require manufacturers to say how much saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol is in a food. No such requirement exists in Ireland, however, and the most a consumer can expect is a voluntary listing of the amount of saturated fat.
There is no requirement, either, for manufacturers to indicate that their products contain acrylamides, a class of chemicals created as a by-product of roasting or cooking at high temperatures (for example, in
manufacturing crisps or chips) and suspected to be carcinogenic. Anderson says it isn't possible to remove these compounds from food so the best way forward is to issue guidelines for best practice.