FDA proposes guidelines to prod food industry to cut salt in products

The Obama administration is prodding food manufacturers and restaurants to sharply reduce salt in their products, saying that Americans need to cut their consumption by a third and can’t do it simply by putting down the salt shaker.

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday issued draft guidelines that would set voluntary targets for an array of foods, an effort to help consumers decrease salt intake from an average 3,400 milligrams a day now to 3,000 mg in two years and 2,300 mg in a decade. Such changes, federal health officials said, are supported by “overwhelming” scientific evidence and would save thousands of lives in the years to come.