Salt reduction in vegetable soup does not affect saltiness intensity and liking in the elderly and children

STUDY BACKGROUND: Reduction of added salt levels in soups is recommended. We evaluated the impact of a 30% reduction of usual added salt in vegetable soups on elderly and children's saltiness and liking evaluation. METHODS: Subjects were elderly and recruited from two public nursing homes (29 older adults, 79.7±8.9 years), and preschool children recruited from a public preschool (49 children, 4.5±1.3 years). This study took place in institutional lunchrooms. Through randomization and crossover, the subjects participated in two sensory evaluation sessions, on consecutive days, to assess perceived saltiness intensity (elderly sample) and liking (elderly and children samples) of a vegetable soup with baseline salt content and with a 30% salt reduction. Elderly rated perceived liking through a 10 cm visual analogue scale [‘like extremely’ (1) to ‘dislike extremely’ (10)] and children through a five-point facial scale [‘dislike very much’ (1) to ‘like very much’ (5)]. RESULTS: After 30% added salt reduction in vegetable soup, there were no significant differences in saltiness noted by the elderly (p=0.150), and in perceived liking by children (p=0.160) and elderly (p=0.860). CONCLUSIONS: A 30% salt reduction in vegetable soup may be achieved without compromising perceived saltiness and liking in children and the elderly.