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Table 3 Major packaged food and beverage categories contributing to Australian household purchases of sodium

From: Contribution of major food companies and their products to household dietary sodium purchases in Australia

Food category rank1

Food category

Total weight of products purchased (g/d per capita)

Mean2

Sodium (mg/d per capita)

Mean purchase-weighted sodium content (mg/100 g)3

Contribution to total weight of sodium purchases (%)

HFP proposed target

(Yes/No)

Mean2

Median

(25th to 75th percentiles)

1

Processed meat

26

148

108 (49 -194)

703

14

Yes

2

Bread

31

129

102 (53 - 175)

451

12

Yes

3

Sauces

16

124

98 (53 - 160)

986

11

Yes

4

Cheese

15

110

85 (48 -143)

736

10

Yes

5

Processed vegetables

40

66

41 (20 - 80)

212

6

No

6

Biscuits/cookies

14

58

43 (22 - 76)

422

5

Yes

7

Milk

124

54

39 (18 - 74)

45

5

No

8

Crisps and snacks

7

44

30 (13 - 59)

633

4

Yes

9

Edible oils

10

43

30 (13 - 57)

409

4

No

10

Spreads and dips

6

38

26 (11 - 48)

730

3

No

 

Others

347

317

272 (181 - 398)

218

27

-

  1. 1Rank = Food categories are ranked in order of their contribution to the total volume of sodium purchased by Australian households, from highest to lowest. Results for the top 10 food categories are shown separately, with the remaining 57 food categories summed together to simplify data presentation. 2Standard error (SE) for weight of products purchased (g/d per capita) and sodium (mg/d per capita) not displayed as SE ≤0.1 for each mean value. HFP, Healthy Food Partnership. 3Purchase-weighted sodium content (mg/100 g): weight of sodium (mg) divided by the total weight (g) of products purchased (package size x quantity sold in 2018)