Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 21, 2026

Salt equivalent

Salt equivalent is usually quoted on food nutrition information tables on food labels, and is a different way of defining sodium intake, noting that salt is chemically sodium chloride.

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Jun 21, 2026
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Salt equivalent is usually quoted on food nutrition information tables on food labels, and is a different way of defining sodium intake, noting that salt is chemically sodium chloride.

To convert from sodium to the approximate salt equivalent, multiply sodium content by 2.5:

m N a C l m N a = m N a + m C l m N a 23 u + 35.5 u 23 u = 58.5 23 2.5 {\displaystyle {\frac {m_{\mathrm {NaCl} }}{m_{\mathrm {Na} }}}={\frac {m_{\mathrm {Na} }+m_{\mathrm {Cl} }}{m_{\mathrm {Na} }}}\approx {\frac {23\mathrm {u} +35.5\mathrm {u} }{23\mathrm {u} }}={\frac {58.5}{23}}\approx 2.5}

(see: atomic mass and molecular mass).

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