‘Cut salt to tackle high blood pressure epidemic’

Salt in processed food should be reduced by regulation or taxation as there’s a “mass epidemic” of high blood pressure in the over-50s, a leading doctor with the Health Research Board has said.

The Institute of Public Health has predicted that by 2020, 1.22m people will be suffering from hypertension.

Professor Ivan Perry of the Centre for Health and Diet Research in UCC said the food sector needed to be tackled by Government.