There has been a significant reduction in the salt content of a number of food products available in Ireland, particularly processed meats, such as rashers and sausages, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has said.

It has published an update of its annual salt monitoring programme, which has been monitoring levels of salt in foods here since 2003.

As part of this programme, the FSAI examined 530 samples of processed foods across four product categories in 2015 - processed meats, breads, breakfast cereals and spreadable fats.

In the category of processed meats, rashers were found to have 27% less salt, cooked ham had 15% less while sausage products had 11% less.

In the bread category, wholegrain breads were found to have 29% less salt, wholemeal had 25% less and white bread had 17% less.

Among spreadable fats, all blended spreads had 27% less salt. Meanwhile breakfast cereals in particular saw a big drop in salt levels, with cornflake-based cereals seeing a reduction of 63%, rice-based recording a 48% drop, bran-based a 39% drop and multigrain cereals recording a 38% drop in salt.

However despite these reductions, the FSAI warned that Irish people are still consuming too much salt. The recommended daily intake of salt for an adult is 5g. However, the estimated average daily intake of Irish adults is currently 11g among men and 8.5g among women.

"Salt plays an important role in the diet, but people in Ireland are simply eating too much of it and this increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. The addition of salt at the table or in cooking by consumers can represent up to 20-30% of a person's total salt intake.

"The FSAI is calling on consumers to read product labels, select low-salt or salt-free options when choosing products and to cut back on the high levels of salt added during cooking and at the table. If you are unsure about the level of salt you are consuming in any product, please refer to the nutrition labelling reference intake (RI), which will give you the percentage of RI per portion of food," commented Dr Wayne Anderson of the FSAI.

While the FSAI will continue to independetly monitor salt levels, it believes that the reformulation of foods must be driven by the food industry.

"Going into the future, the industry needs to pursue further research and development to achieve further reductions where possible," Dr Anderson added.