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PepsiCo Reduces Sodium by Restructuring Salt
- dbEsq 17y agoBetter eating through science.
- ovi256 17y agoBetter better through science.
- ovi256 17y agoOh come on guys, use your imaginations. I was just saying that science constantly pushes our expectations upwards, its progress advancing at such tremendous speed that we are unfazed by what yesterday passed for magic. No other discipline manages to do that, I dare say. Modern art ? Underwhelming to most people.
- PostOnce 17y agoIf this isn't innovation, I don't know what is. Beautiful things happen when time and effort are spent on mundane problems.
- mattmaroon 17y agoThe nice thing is, unlike what we've done with many other things, we're not substituting something even less healthy for the problem we're trying to cure. (ie. margarine full of transfats for butter, HFCS for sugar.) It's just getting the same taste benefit with less sodium. Pretty much win-win (assuming it's not costly).
- orblivion 17y agoWait are you sure? You're "restructuring" salt. That raises flags for me, as much as HFCS does anyway. I guess I'd have to see exactly what they do. More chloride?
- brunov 17y agoNo, the Na:Cl ratio should still be 1 to balance off the charges. It's probably reducing the size of the salt crystals so that it disolves in your saliva quicker, allowing for the same taste with less mass of salt.
- ryanpetrich 17y agoIncrease surface area to mass ratio. Seems simple enough.
- TeHCrAzY 17y agoI would hazard a guess that they would be more interested in the crystal's physical formation. "Small" salt crystals already exist! Perhaps they can significantly adjust the atomic structure (less crazy that it sounds) to be optimal?
- orblivion 17y agoSounds almost like an explanation I got for kosher salt. Sounds neat, thanks for the explanation.
- natrius 17y agoFor anyone else wondering why Pepsi cares about this: they own Frito-Lay.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- jmtame 17y agomy first reaction was "they're reducing the sodium in pepsi the beverage." didn't seem to match up with a video circulating not too long ago that claims sodium was intentionally added at high levels in soft drinks (proportional to high fructose corn syrup to mask the taste of sodium). if it's food snacks, i guess that makes more sense.
- smallblacksun 17y agoColas have 35-50mg of sodium per can, depending on the brand.
- blahedo 17y agoMy 355mL bottle of Coke (about 12oz) says 85mg.
- smallblacksun 17y agoThat's odd, mine says 50.
- 3dFlatLander 17y agoIncidentally, you ever read the ingredients list of Fritos? If not, you're up for a pleasant surprise.
- psyklic 17y agoIngredients: Corn, Corn Oil, and Salt. No Preservatives. There are similarly simple ingredients in most plain potato chips. But corn chips and potato chips are usually FRIED!!
- gojomo 17y agoThe public health disaster of the 2020s: blowback from the sodium crusade of the 2010s. Wherein it will be found that: - sodium isn't nearly as bad as was thought -- the numbers shopped by advocacy groups are found to have been based on flimsy studies and extrapolations -- and many population subgroups already had sodium deficiencies at the beginning of the crusade, which were worsened by the new standards - most people unconsciously sought a homeostatic balance, and thus increased their consumption of other foods to try to restore the salt levels that were lessened-by-statutes, aggravating other health issues - novel salt substitutes cooked up in the labs had unforeseen negative health effects
- starkfist 17y agoDoubtful. The amount of sodium in processed food products and restaurant food is absurdly high. Which population groups have sodium deficiencies? certainly none in the 1st world, and probably none in the 2nd & 3rd world.
- gojomo 17y agoObjectively define 'absurdly high'. My suggestion of some groups already having deficiency is conjecture based on little hints here and there; more study is needed. My guesses would be: vegetarians, athletes who avoid processed food, ethnicities with a longer history of eating heavily-salted foods, some elderly, some pregnant women. I suppose that by subjecting the entire population to an enforced low-sodium diet, and seeing who starts suffering from fatigue and early mortality, we'll find out soon enough.
- periferral 17y agoI disagree. I think if anything there are more people dying because of high blood pressure and other illnesses linked through it than low-sodium issues. Besides, the fix to low-sodium, eat more salt. The fix to high blood pressure, exercise and medication.
- ericb 17y ago
- gojomo 17y agoJust don't drop any of this Salt-9 in the oceans!
- ck2 17y agoMy diet soda already says "very low sodium" so why can't regular drinks also be very low? Or is salt a preservative for the sugar drinks?
- kilian 17y agoit's for the crisps/chips they make (as mentioned elsewhere, pepsi owns frito-lay)
- benatkin 17y agoYou also don't taste all the salt in meat or cheese, as you swallow bits that don't get fully chewed up. That's how it's possible that there's more salt in a serving of cheese than a serving of salted nuts, even though the nuts taste saltier. http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/planters/salted-cashews-half-serving http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/planter... http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/sorrento/fresh-mozzarella-cheese http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/sorrent...
- smallblacksun 17y agoAlso, a lot of the salt on salted nuts falls off and ends up in the bottom of the jar, so you don't actually eat it.
- adolph 17y agoI guess the margarita would be an example of prior art?
- DannoHung 17y agoWas there a corresponding 25% decrease in chlorine as well? Cuz, uh, more free chloride ions seems... not good.
- ars 17y agoThere wasn't. They just made it so you are more likely to taste the salt, therefor they have to put less in.
- timdellinger 17y agoGoogle for "dendritic salt"... it's been around for years. It also soaks up flavors into its little pores and holds them really well. I've seen micrographs in advertisements in food industry publications that are really beautiful, fractal-looking crystals. They key is to add a touch of things like sodium ferrocyanide to hinder the usual crystallization so that the crystals only grow at the corners.
- bdonlan 17y agoSodium ferrocyanide sounds like it might be somewhat toxic and/or need FDA approval...
- nfnaaron 17y ago"Khan said PepsiCo researchers collaborated with scientists from around the world and found ways of changing the crystal size and structure to make the salt crystal dissolve more quickly, effectively putting the sodium on your tongue, not in your digestive system." What? What happens to the salt that dissolves on your tongue? Doesn't it travel into your system as you swallow your saliva? Or do little salt beaches form in your mouth?
- hga 17y agoI think this means more of the salt hits your tongue on the way to your digestive system, i.e. from the fine article, "A Wall Street Journal story later reported only about 20 percent of the salt on a chip dissolves on the tongue, and the remaining 80 percent is swallowed without contributing to taste."
- alanh 17y agoUnreported is the process used to achieve the result. What enzymes are used? Are there trace amounts left in the finished salt?
- brunov 17y agoWhat makes you think they are using enzymes?
- SapphireSun 17y agoAgreed. This is inorganic chemistry. They are probably doing something like doing something like precipitating the salt from an aqueous solution in a special way (like under high velocity flow or supersaturating aerosolized water droplets).
- Tichy 17y agoI'm sure Cola will be that much healthier now. Not...
- wrs 17y agoFortunately, you can take advantage of different "salt structures" in your own cooking (table salt, kosher salt, sea salt, Fleur de Sel, etc.) without a research lab. Putting Fleur de Sel on Fritos would be a little crazy, but this sounds like the same basic idea.