1.Study on salt content in commonly consumed meals of Mongolians
Enkhtungalag Batsaikhan ; Tsogzolmaa Bayandorj ; Jacqui Webster ; Chimedsuren Ochir ; Batjargal Jamayan
Mongolian Medical Sciences 2015;171(1):36-42
INTRODUCTION:
Excessive use of salt lead to development of noncommunicable diseases, especially to hypertension [1,
2, 3, 4, 5].The WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020 (Geneva, 2012)
called for a reduction of population salt intake by 30 percent by 2025 [13, 14, 15, 15, 16, 17]. There was no any
data on salt content collected under the fourth National Survey on Nutrition 2010 and the STEPS survey on
the prevalence of noncommunicable disease risk factors 2005, 2009 and 2013. Thus, this is first time ever, the
detailed data on salt content was collected and analysed.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Fifty two food production and food handling organizations were enrolled during 2011-2012 through crosssectional
survey. In total, 251 samples from 43 types of meals were tested NaCI ion by titer method in the
laboratory of National Center of Public Health and statistical analysis were done by running SPSS package,
Version 19. The ethical approval has been obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Health in 2011
(Resolution No. 14).
RESULTS:
An average content of salt was 0.94 g/100 g (SD 0.42, 95%CI 0.90-1.00) in the commonly used meals from
mass catering services. For example, soup has content of 0.86 g/100 ml (SD 0.23, 95%CI 0.81-0.91) of salt;
fried meal has 1.03 g (SD 0.41, 95% CI 0.95-1.12); buuz – meat dumpling, khuushuur- fried meat dumpling,
buns, pirojki –russian fried dumpling, fried sausage, hot dog, hamburger, pizza and other fast food -1.12 g/100
g (SD 0.34, 95%CI 0.93-1.14); vegetable salad and meat snacks 0.90 g/100 g (SD 0.62, 95%CI 0.77-1.18); tea
-0.69 g/100 ml (SD 0.50, 95%CI 0.49-0.92) of salt.
CONCLUSIONS:
Eighty five percent of Mongolian commonly consumed food were classified as ”high salt” content. Mongolian
meal recipes for mass catering services that 1 portion of meal contains 1 g salt. The study results will serve as
an evidence-based recommendations to further revision of the current recipes. Thus, it is important to renew a
salt content in 100 g of foods based on international recommendations.