Marketers are predicting sales of low-salt foods will increase

NEW YORK Food marketers believe that reducing the salt in their products will ultimately boost up to more sales.

With baby boomers reaching their 60s, BrandWeek reported, marketers are being lead to believe that consumers are becoming more health-conscious.

The report also suggests, however, that the changing tastes of consumers is being overlooked, citing that Datamonitor Productscan Online reported that only 4.1 percent of foods today are making low-sodium claims, up from 2.5 percent in 2002.

While the low-sodium category is a slow-growing one, some companies, such as Campbell’s Soup, have invested millions in their campaign to cut sodium content in its food and beverage categories.

“We are focusing on how to lower sodium across our entire portfolio,” said Juli Mandel Sloves, senior manager of nutrition and wellness at Campbell. “The soup sales have exceeded our expectations and have been incremental to sales of our base brands.”

Food and beverage maker Del Monte introduced organic products three years ago, which has improved sales of low-sodium items. The company has 25 low-sodium or no-salt-added products across its portfolio. “The low-sodium/no salt business is small, only about 5 percent of our sales, but it’s growing,” said Apu Mody, senior vice president of consumer products.

As an accompaniment with the rapid increase of low-sugar products (specifically, cereals) that premiered on store shelves three years ago, this glacial-paced market may have consumers saying they want one thing and actually crave something else. But naturally, only time (and sales) will tell.