Government policies and strategies should create environments that enable populations to consume adequate quantities of safe and nutritious foods that make up a healthy diet including low salt. Improving dietary habits is a societal as well as an individual responsibility. It demands a population-based, multisectoral, and culturally relevant approach.

Key broad strategies for salt reduction include:

• government policies - including appropriate fiscal policies and regulation to ensure food manufacturers and retailers produce healthier foods or make healthy products available and affordable;
• working with the private sector to improve the availability and accessibility of low-salt products;
• consumer awareness and empowerment of populations through social marketing and mobilization to raise awareness of the need to reduce salt intake consumption;
• creating an enabling environment for salt reduction through local policy interventions and the promotion of “healthy food” settings such as schools, workplaces, communities, and cities;
• monitoring of population salt intake, sources of salt in the diet and consumer knowledge, attitudes and behaviours relating to salt to inform policy decisions.

Salt reduction programmes and programmes that promote fortification with micronutrients of salt, condiments or seasonings high in salt (bouillon cubes, soy and fish sauce) can complement each other.

Salt consumption at home can be reduced by:

• not adding salt during the preparation of food;
• not having a salt shaker on the table;
• limiting the consumption of salty snacks;
• choosing products with lower sodium content.

Other local practical actions to reduce salt intake include:

• integrating salt reduction into the training curriculum of food handlers;
• removing salt shakers and soy sauce from tables in restaurants; Introducing product or shelf labels making it clear that certain products are high in sodium;
• providing targeted dietary advice to people visiting health facilities;
• advocating for people to limit their intake of products high in salt and advocating that they reduce the amount of salt used for cooking; and
• educating children and providing a supportive environment for children so that they start early with adopting low salt diets.