O-38 Dietary Sodium Intake and Risk Assessments with the Impact of the Adoption of the WHO Global Sodium Benchmark of Bread in Lagos, Nigeria

Methods: The level of sodium in bread in Lagos, Nigeria was estimated from on-pack nutrition labels of breads sold in the open markets and supermarkets in some local government areas in Lagos, Nigeria, and daily bread consumption data from the GEMS/Food Cluster Diets. These calculations were done to estimate dietary sodium intake and risk from bread using the methods stipulated in the Codex Food Safety Risk Analysis Manual and FAO Dietary Risk – Pesticide Registration Toolkit. Comparison of the estimated dietary intake was made with the Nutrient Reference Value – Noncommunicable Disease for Sodium from Codex Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling. Also, a comparison of the estimated sodium content in bread was made with the WHO global sodium benchmark.

Results: This study’s estimated dietary sodium intake from bread was 1.99 g per day and contributes 100% of the WHO recommended maximum dietary sodium intake per day. The estimated dietary sodium intake if the WHO benchmark was adopted was 1.1 g per day and contributes 55% of the recommended WHO maximum dietary sodium intake per day.The estimated relative risk is 0.55 and relative risk reduction is 45%.

Conclusion: From this study, it is concluded that a significant proportion of sodium in the Lagos, Nigeria diet comes from bread. Consumption of bread in Lagos, Nigeria poses a significant risk of excess sodium intake and hypertension. The adoption of the WHO global sodium benchmark may contribute to reducing dietary sodium intake and risk from bread significantly.