The voluntary targets for 80 food categories are more challenging than previous ones and reflect the agency's long-term commitment to reducing people's average salt intake to 6g a day.
The latest evidence (from 2008) estimates that an average person's salt intake is 8.6g - 0.9g lower than in 2000-2001.
The previous targets for 2010 were set in 2006. The salt-reduction targets have been set for foods that make the greatest contribution of salt to the average person's diet, such as bread, meat products and cereals, as well as convenience foods like pizza, ready meals and savoury snacks.
Stephen Robertson, director general of the British Retail Consortium, said: ‘The new salt targets are much harder and, in some cases, we believe customers won't accept the change in taste. It‘s crucial we take customers with us as tastes don't change overnight.
He also claimed that cutting salt would be ‘perverse' if it reduced a product's shelf life and increased food waste which would compromise a key part of Government's food policy.
The FSA will monitor progress toward meeting the 2012 targets and run further ad and PR campaigns on salt in autumn 2009.
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