Sodium Reduction Through Sensory Interactions With NaCl: Strategies and Underlying Mechanisms

Excessive sodium intake from processed foods poses significant health risks, necessitating effective sodium-reduction strategies in the food industry. This review explores sensory interactions between sodium chloride and flavor stimuli, including taste (sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and umami), orthonasal and retronasal olfaction (e.g., soy sauce, herbs, and spices), and chemesthetic sensations (e.g., tingling and burning), to enhance saltiness perception while reducing sodium content. Sensory interactions, particularly with retronasal olfaction and chemesthesis, can achieve sodium reductions of up to 75% and 39%, respectively, in various food matrices. Mechanistic insights reveal that top-down regulation by higher neural centers, such as the insular and orbitofrontal cortex, enhances saltiness perception through peripheral and central nervous system pathways. These findings provide a practical foundation for the food industry to develop sodium-reduction products.