New Zealand food fight
The New Zealand Bakery Association has blasted FSANZ, warning that its new requirement of iodized salt in bread "will be expensive, claiming there are not a lot of facilities to process iodised salt in the country." The bakers apparently duped foodnavigator.com writer Charlotte Eyre on that point and another: that "iodine is a nutrient commonly found in salt."
Noting that "half truths are the most insidious," the Salt Institute responded, defending the FSANZ decision and pointing out that:
1. Plain salt has 1/100th the amount of iodine of iodine-fortified salt; it may be detectable in a lab, but it's insignificant nutritionally.
2. Salt iodization is not expensive; it costs pennies per year per person.
3. New Zealand may not have "a lot of facilities to process iodised salt," but it's a small country, well-served by Salt Institute member companies Dominion Salt of New Zealand and Cheetham Salt of Australia whose few plants make virtually all the food salt in the country and which can easily accomplish the required iodization virtually with the flip of a switch.
Surely the bakers have better fights to fight.
