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NMPF continues to provide substantive comments to the New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on its National Sodium Reduction Initiative. As the city’s health department examines alternatives to reduce sodium intake, cheese has become a primary target. The Initiative is recommending a 30% reduction of sodium in pizza served at schools.

In a letter to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NMPF stressed the technical challenges associated with reducing sodium in cheese in terms of taste, functional, and safety attributes. Such challenges are even more pronounced in lower fat cheese varieties. The primary points of the letter included:

• Sodium is important in terms of safety, functionality, and quality of cheese. Salt helps control the fermentation process, and it maintains characteristics such as flavor, texture, and shelf life. It helps minimize spoilage and prevent the growth of pathogenic organisms.
• These roles are more pronounced as related to the production of lower fat cheeses. In response to public health recommendations, the industry has placed a high priority on work to increase the availability of good tasting, lower fat cheeses.
• Consumer acceptance of low sodium cheeses currently available has not been promising. This is of particular concern from a nutritional perspective given that cheese is a significant source of essential nutrients in the diets of growing children and teens. For example, a single serving of Cheddar cheese provides nearly one‐fourth (23%) of the recommended calcium intake of 1300 mg/day for 9‐18 year‐olds.