Switching regular salt to potassium-enriched salt to prevent high blood pressure and heart disease

Doctor Katrina Kissock, University of New South Wales

Postdoctoral Fellowship

Years funded: 2025 - 2026

Switching regular salt for potassium-enriched salt

High blood pressure is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease, causing early death from stroke and heart disease. Currently, 1 in 4 Australian adults have uncontrolled high blood pressure. Excess sodium (in the form of salt) and inadequate potassium intake leads to high blood pressure.

Two decades of national efforts to reduce sodium intake in Australia have failed as changes required of end users are not feasible or practical. Reducing sodium or increasing potassium intake is shown to lower blood pressure, but greater lowering is shown when these strategies are combined. Potassium-enriched salt, where a proportion of sodium is replaced with potassium, is a novel approach proven to reduce blood pressure and cardiovascular risk in clinically controlled settings.

This research program will focus on getting potassium-enriched salt used at scale by the food industry and consumers to improve heart health in Australia using a mixed methods approach. Specifically, it will:

1. quantify the nutrition and health impacts of switching regular salt to potassium-enriched salt in packaged foods and the saltshaker among the Australian population and those with high blood pressure, and cost impacts for Australian food manufacturers, and
2. explore healthcare professional knowledge, attitudes and practices towards recommending potassium-enriched salt for high blood pressure.

This work will identify enablers, barriers and strategies to increase the use of potassium-enriched salt in Australia. Findings will support and advocate for change to public health policy and clinical guidelines to influence food industry and healthcare professional practice to make potassium-enriched salt the healthier norm across the entire population, averting thousands of strokes and heart attacks in Australia each year. This will have relevance to inform and guide efforts in scaling-up the use of potassium-enriched salt more broadly and across the globe.