Salt equivalent

Salt equivalent is usually quoted on food nutrition information tables on food labels, and is a different way of defining sodium intake, noting that salt is chemically sodium chloride.

To convert from sodium to the approximate salt equivalent, multiply sodium content by 2.5:

$\frac{m_{\mathrm{N}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{C}\mathrm{l}}}{m_{\mathrm{N}\mathrm{a}}}=\frac{m_{\mathrm{N}\mathrm{a}}+m_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{l}}}{m_{\mathrm{N}\mathrm{a}}}\approx \frac{23\mathrm{u}+35.5\mathrm{u}}{23\mathrm{u}}=\frac{58.5}{23}\approx 2.5$

(see: atomic mass and molecular mass).

Sources

• British Nutrition Foundation article on salt

Further reading

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