Ingredient Lists and Sodium

Reading ingredient lists is helpful in finding out sodium content. These lists name the ingredients in a food in descending order.

Following is an ingredient list for a typical processed cheddar cheese:

Cheddar cheese, enzyme-modified cheddar cheese (milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), water, lactic acid, enzymes, milk fat, sodium citrate, kasal, salt, sodium phosphate, sorbic acid (preservative), apocarotenal (color)

You can see that cheese is the main ingredient. But note that salt is present in two places in the list and that the list also contains sodium citrate and sodium phosphate. These are two other types of sodium.

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