Table 2.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Target Types

Advantages	Disadvantages
Sales‐weighted averages/means
The gold standard, accounting for product market share, or, in other words, people's buying patterns, facilitates companies to prioritize for reformulation of those products within a category that contributes more to salt intake. Reformulations reduce the salt within the whole food category and by extension offer the benefits of lower salt intake equitably across all people who consume the products in the category. Monitoring sales‐weighted averages of different food categories combined with food intake survey data allows the most accurate estimates of population intake of salt.	The sales volume data required for weighting of averages are proprietary and expensive to obtain so most likely out of reach in low‐income settings. Sales‐weighted averages can be brought down with a focus on a few high market volume products without addressing products associated with vulnerable groups, eg, children. Difficult to use in developing regulations, eg, for warning labels; are impractical for consumer education as they are not easily understood by consumers and consumers groups; and for an independent organization willing to monitor progress of salt reduction, most likely impossible without significant resource inputs.
Maximum or upper limits
Set a clear ceiling for all products in a category. Can be set at around the average for a food category at a point in time and reduced as the average moves downward. Requires a formal publically announced plan to gradually lower the upper limits. Directly applicable to regulatory approaches such as warning labels. Relatively easy to utilize in monitoring whether food products achieve the target. Easiest for industry, policy makers, and consumers to understand. Easy for consumers and food companies to compare. Reduces the salt content of products above the maximum or highest salt products are eliminated altogether.	Likely to result in reformulation efforts aimed predominantly at food items above the target rather than all foods in a category, with food companies aiming reformulation to be at or just below the maximum and no lower. Companies whose products have salt levels initially below the maxima have no incentive to reduce salt content. Undermines adoption of best in class/best in world that are based on sales‐weighted averages. If high‐salt content products are not high volume regarding consumption, may have little or no impact on actual salt intake levels. Companies whose products are below the maximum do not participate.
Simple averages
Easier and less expensive to implement and monitor than sales‐weighted averages; accessible in low‐resource settings.	No incentive for industry to focus on high‐volume high‐salt products. Industry may reduce the salt in low‐selling products in a category, thereby reducing the simple average of the category but having no significant impact on actual salt intake.