Join us on Friday, 19 May, in the webinar "Monitoring of PAHO’s Updated Regional Sodium Reduction Targets" as part of the activities of the Salt Awareness Week 2023 (15-21 May) #Ditch the Salt. The event will be broadcasted vía Zoom from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm (Washington DC time) and will have simultaneous translation in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
How to participate
- DATE: Friday, 19 May, 2023
- TIME: 11:00 – 1:00 PM EDT [check below the local time in other cities]
- REGISTER: https://paho-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-XY4mIPvRaGtAGpo-8Pq8g
- After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
- LANGUAGES: The webinar will be in English, Spanish and Portuguese, with simultaneous interpretation.
Background
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) supports World Salt Awareness Week to join forces with the international community and promote further policy actions to reduce salt consumption in our Region and protect health in the population. In many countries, three quarters of sodium in the diet comes from ultra-processed and processed foods, such as bread, cereal and grains, processed meats, and dairy products. An effective way to reduce population intake of sodium is by reducing the consumption of these products and by lowering the sodium content of frequently consumed foods.
Salt reduction policies targeted specifically at the reduction of the sodium content in foods are necessary and relevant and these must be implemented on a mandatory basis. PAHO/WHO has developed different tools to support Member States, including the new set of updated PAHO Regional Sodium Reduction Targets developed in collaboration with the University of Toronto and launched in October 2021. These targets include maximum thresholds for 75 subcategories, which fall under 16 food category headings. A 15% and 30% reduction were establisehd for 2022 and 2025, respectively, from the measured levels of sodium at the 50th percentile. If the calculated value for 2025 (30% reduction) was below the 25th percentile, the 25th percentile was used as the 2025 target.
About the webinar
In this webinar, monitoring and implementation of the most recent updated targets to reduce salt in the Region will be shared together with technical tools to facilitate the mandatory implementation and monitoring of comprehensive policies.
The aim of this webinar is to present PAHO’s tools to implement and monitor salt reduction targets in the Region and how countries can implement them in a mandatory process. To introduce the latest and most significant progress in the Region regarding monitoring of policies to reduce salt consumption, and to present the results of the analysis carried out in the Region on the economic and health effects of salt reduction policies.
Agenda
- 11:00 - 11:10 am EDT - Welcome to the webinar
- Leo Nederveen, Acting Unit Chief Risk Factors and Nutrition, Regional Advisor on Food, Nutrition and Physical Activity in Schools, Pan American Health Organization PAHO
- 11:10 - 11:30 am EDT - Monitoring Sodium content in Packaged Foods in The Americas (ARG, CAN, CRI, PER, PAN)
- Mary L'Abbé, Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
- 11:30 - 12:00 pm EDT - Panel: Country experiences in monitoring salt in LAC (ARG, CRI, PAN, PER)
- Lorena Allemandi, Capacity Development Senior Manager & Salt Expert, NCD Alliance
- 12:00 - 12:30 pm EDT - Case studies - Implementation of Salt Targets and Simulation (BRA, CAN MEX)
- Eduardo Nilsson, Researcher, Fundaçao Oswaldo Cruz – Universidade de Sao Paulo
- 12:30 – 12:50 pm EDT - Mandatory sodium targets to achieve effective sodium reduction. Preventing Conflicts of Interest
- Fabio Gomes, Regional Advisor Nutrition and Physical Activity, Pan American Health Organization
- 12:50 – 1:00 pm EDT - Wrap up / Conclusions
- Leo Nederveen, Acting Unit Chief Risk Factors and Nutrition, Regional Advisor on Food, Nutrition and Physical Activity in Schools, Pan American Health Organization PAHO
Time correspondance
- 8:00 am.– Los Angeles, Vancouver
- 9:00 am. – Belmopan, Guatemala City, Managua, Mexico City, San Jose (CR), San Salvador, Tegucigalpa
- 10:00 am. – Bogota, Panamá City, Kingston, Lima, Quito, Cayman Islands
- 11:00 am. – Asunción, Bridgetown, Caracas, Castries, Georgetown, Havana, La Paz, Nassau, Ottawa, Port-au-Prince, Port of Spain, San Juan, Santiago, Santo Domingo, Washington DC
- 12:00 pm – Buenos Aires, Brasilia, Montevideo, Paramaribo
- 5:00 pm. – Geneva, Madrid
For other cities, check the local time in the following link.