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What is the availability of iodised salt in supermarkets on the Island of Ireland?

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 73, pages 1636–1638 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Iodine deficiency remains a global nutritional public health challenge, with evidence suggesting borderline adequate or even deficient status for UK and Irish subpopulations such as schoolgirls and pregnant women. The solution, according to the WHO, is salt iodisation, but it is not known how widely available iodised salt is in supermarkets. Iodised salt availability was determined by a shelf survey of 89 supermarket stores on the island of Ireland (n = 30 in Northern Ireland and n = 59 in the Republic of Ireland) from September 2018 to January 2019, to take into account factors such as store type, location, population density, socioeconomic status and ethnicity. Availability was calculated as the number of stores selling iodised salt as a percentage of the total. Iodised salt was only available in 11 stores (12%), of which 10 were ethnic stores. This indicates a lack of access for the majority of the Irish and Northern Irish populations.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Iodine Global Network.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Global Food Security, Centre for Public Health, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Mark Shaw, Michaela McHugh, Ashley Kane & Jayne V. Woodside

  2. Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Anne P. Nugent

  3. Institute of Food and Health, School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Breige A. McNulty & Aoibhin Moore Heslin

  4. Department of Biological Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Cork, Ireland

    Janette Walton & Eoin Morrissey

  5. Regional Centre for Endocrinology & Diabetes, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust, Belfast, UK

    Karen Mullan

Authors
  1. Mark Shaw
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  2. Anne P. Nugent
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  3. Breige A. McNulty
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  4. Janette Walton
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  5. Michaela McHugh
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  6. Ashley Kane
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  7. Aoibhin Moore Heslin
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  8. Eoin Morrissey
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  9. Karen Mullan
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  10. Jayne V. Woodside
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Contributions

APN, BMcN, JW and JVW designed the study. MS, APN, BMcN, JW, MMcH, AK, AMH, EM and JVW completed the store audits. MS complied the overall database and analysed the data. MS, APN and JVW completed quality control checks and wrote the initial manuscript. All authors contributed to data interpretation and writing of the paper.

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Correspondence to Jayne V. Woodside.

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Shaw, M., Nugent, A.P., McNulty, B.A. et al. What is the availability of iodised salt in supermarkets on the Island of Ireland?. Eur J Clin Nutr 73, 1636–1638 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-019-0518-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-019-0518-6

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