BANGKOK, Nov 7 (TNA) – The chairman of the Less Salt network says a salt tax is still an idea that has yet to be thoroughly studied and the tax is likely to be applied to instant food products only.
Assoc Prof Dr Surasak Kantachuwessiri, chair of the Less Salt network of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, said that a salt tax proposed to follow a tax on sugar content in beverages was still an idea that could not be implemented in the near future because it had yet to be studied.
The idea was aimed at controlling the consumption of sodium through the limitation of salt content in food products because it was difficult to persuade consumers to change their dietary behaviors, he said.
He commented that it would be easy to control salt and sodium content in instant food products which showed the content clearly on their labels.
Assoc Prof Dr Surasak said people should not consume more than 600 milligrams of sodium per day while instant foods like noodles and rice porridge products contained as much as 1,800 milligrams of sodium per unit. Some people ate more than two packs of such products, he said. (TNA)
