Table 3

Impact of the Australian sodium reformulation programme on purchases of sodium across the top 10 food companies that contribute most to sodium purchases

Company rank*	Unique number of products sold in 2018	Products already meeting target (%)	Mean sodium purchases (mg/day per capita)†
Company rank*	Unique number of products sold in 2018	Products already meeting target (%)	Current	Reformulated to meet targets‡	Difference (targets applied−current)
1 (Retailer)	475	38	68	60	−7
2 (Retailer)	403	48	61	54	−7
3 (Retailer)	389	64	59	56	−3
4 (Manufacturer)	123	41	30	28	−2
5 (Manufacturer)	85	10	22	21	−1
6 (Manufacturer)	66	49	21	18	−3
7 (Manufacturer)	143	48	17	14	−2
8 (Manufacturer)	55	35	12	11	−1
9 (Manufacturer)	139	38	11	9	−2
10 (Manufacturer)	42	19	10	9	−2
Others	2387	50	133	113	−20

*Rank=companies are ranked in order of their contribution to the total sodium purchased by Australian households in 2018, from highest to lowest. Results for the top 10 companies are shown separately, with the remaining 313 companies summed together to simplify data presentation. Retailers are defined as supermarket retailers that sell their own ‘private-label’ products (also known as ‘own brand’ ‘generic’) exclusively in their own stores, whereas manufacturers are classified as national and international food companies that manufacture and distribute items (also known as ‘branded products’) for general trade.
†SE for mean sodium purchases (mg/day per capita) not displayed as SE ≤0.1 for each mean value.
‡Reformulated to meet targets assumes purchase patterns remain similar over time. Foods with per 100 g sodium values at or below the target retained their sodium content, and foods with per 100 g sodium values above the target had the sodium content replaced with the sodium target. Conversely, if a product is already meeting the target, we assumed its sodium content will not change.