Can non-fortified marine salt cover human needs for iodine?

Abstract

Iodine deficiency remains a worldwide problem with two billion individuals having insufficient iodine intake. Universal salt iodisation was declared by UNICEF and WHO as a safe, cost-effective, and sustainable way to tackle iodine deficiency. In Portugal, the few studies available unravel an iodine status below the WHO guidelines for pregnant women and school-aged children. In the present study, the iodine levels of household salt consumed in Portugal was assessed, for the first time. Non-iodised (median 14 ppm) and fortified (median 48 ppm) marine salt samples showed iodine levels lower than the minimum and above the maximum threshold recommended by non-mandatory Portuguese law and WHO recommendations, respectively. This study calls attention to the fact that marine salt per se, in spite of containing a natural high amount of iodine, requires further fortification in order to be used as an effective tool to deal with iodine insufficiency.

Keywords:

• Salt
• iodine
• public health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

R. B. R. Mesquita thanks to Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) and POCH of FSE for the grant SFRH/BPD/112032/2015. This research was partially funded through the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/04423/2013 through national funds provided by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the programme PT2020. The funding organisations had no involvement in the design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data or in the preparation or review of the manuscript.