Health Canada’s 2025 interim assessment reviewed 1,283 Canadian grocery products and found four categories had higher sodium in 2023-24 than in 2017: pizza crust, tomato sauce, ready-to-eat cereals, and whole-wheat or mixed-grain bread. These four are now the most likely to carry Canada’s mandatory “High in Sodium” front-of-package symbol.
Last reviewed: 2026-06-22
Canadian food manufacturers had voluntary targets to reduce sodium in a range of packaged-food categories by 2025. For most categories, the data shows they made at least some progress.
For four of them, sodium went up.
Health Canada’s 2025 interim assessment of sodium reduction in select processed foods reviewed 1,283 product labels collected from Canadian grocery stores between October 2023 and July 2024 (Health Canada, 2025). Four categories came out with higher average sodium than the 2017 baseline: pizza crust, tomato sauce, ready-to-eat cereals, and whole-wheat or mixed-grain bread.
Here is what the data shows, why it happened, and what it means when you’re comparing labels in a grocery aisle.
Which four Canadian packaged-food categories had higher sodium in 2024 than in 2017?
The four categories are:
- Pizza crust
- Tomato sauce
- Ready-to-eat cereals
- Whole-wheat and mixed-grain bread
These categories were part of Canada’s voluntary sodium reduction program, which asked food manufacturers to hit lower sodium targets by 2025. Health Canada collected 1,283 product labels at Canadian grocery retailers between October 2023 and July 2024, close to the end of the voluntary target window. All four categories showed higher average sodium than the 2017 baseline (Health Canada, 2025).
Two of these tend to surprise people. Tomato sauce and whole-wheat bread are often treated as the nutritionally sound choice in their categories, and for fiber, whole grains, and other nutrients, they often are. But both showed sodium trending up over the target period.
Pizza crust is less surprising: crust is one of the main sodium carriers in any pizza, and flavor and texture expectations create formulation pressure in the salty direction. Ready-to-eat cereals cover a wide product range, and the category average moved in the wrong direction despite some individual products having lower sodium than earlier versions.
Why did sodium levels rise when manufacturers had targets to reduce it?
The 2020-2025 sodium reduction targets were voluntary commitments from Canadian food manufacturers, not regulations or legal requirements. Companies agreed to meet them by choice, with no legal penalties for missing.
Health Canada’s assessment describes overall industry progress toward those targets as limited (Health Canada, 2025). The four categories above did worse than that: sodium levels went up, not down.
Voluntary targets in food policy tend to work when reformulation is straightforward, when enough manufacturers compete on the metric, and when “lower sodium” is something consumers reward at the shelf. In categories where saltiness is part of the perceived quality (pizza crust flavor, tomato sauce depth) or where reformulation costs outweigh the upside, the incentive to reduce is weaker.
None of this means these foods are unsafe. Health Canada is not issuing a recall, a safety advisory, or a recommendation to avoid these categories. The assessment is a progress report on voluntary industry pledges. For these four categories, those pledges were not met.
What does Canada’s mandatory “High in Sodium” symbol have to do with these categories?
Canada introduced mandatory front-of-package nutrition labeling effective January 1, 2026. Any packaged food where sodium exceeds 15% of the Daily Value per serving (345 mg for a 2,300 mg reference) must carry a magnifying glass symbol labeled “High in Sodium” on the front of the package.
The symbol is visible before you open the product or read the back. No Nutrition Facts math required. If it is on the front, the product is above the threshold.
The four categories in Health Canada’s 2025 interim assessment are exactly the type of products where this symbol now appears regularly. A pizza crust portion, a half-cup of tomato sauce, or two slices of whole-wheat bread can clear the 345 mg threshold depending on the brand. Cereal varies widely, but the category trending upward makes the symbol a useful first filter before comparing specific products.
For a full explanation of how Canada’s front-of-package labeling works, including thresholds for sodium, saturated fat, and sugar, see: Canada’s New Front-of-Package Nutrition Label: What the “High in” Symbol Means for Your Grocery Cart.
How do I actually use this at the grocery store?
The Health Canada assessment gives you a category-level signal. Sodium content varies significantly by brand within each category, so the practical moves at the shelf are:
Check the front of the package first. The “High in Sodium” symbol is the fastest filter. Products above 345 mg of sodium per serving carry it; products below do not. No back-label math required.
Compare brands within the same category. The sodium range between the lowest and highest pizza crust brands on a store shelf can span several hundred milligrams per serving. The same is true for tomato sauce: a standard pasta sauce and a no-salt-added version from the same manufacturer can differ by 400 mg or more per half-cup serving. Checking two or three products side by side gives you real information.
Pay attention to bread. Whole-wheat and mixed-grain breads are often the fiber upgrade, and they are. But sodium is trending up in this category. Two slices of some brands can put a single sandwich above the 345 mg threshold, which compounds when sodium matters across the day.
Tomato sauce: no-salt-added versions are widely available and make a real difference. Most Canadian grocery stores carry at least one no-salt-added pasta sauce. If you use tomato sauce regularly, this is one of the highest-impact sodium reductions available from a single label swap.
Cereals hide a wide range inside the category average. Steel-cut oats and puffed grain cereals typically have very low sodium. Flavored, bran-based, or cluster-style cereals can be substantially higher. The category trend going the wrong direction is a reason to check individual products, not a reason to avoid cereal entirely.
NoJunk scans labels when you photograph them. It reads sodium from the Nutrition Facts table and shows where the product sits relative to the daily reference, alongside an ingredient check, in a single scan.
NoJunk reads Nutrition Facts tables and ingredient lists from a label photo. Free to download on iOS.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Canadian packaged foods are highest in sodium?
Health Canada’s 2025 interim assessment identified four categories where average sodium levels increased between 2017 and 2023-24: pizza crust, tomato sauce, ready-to-eat cereals, and whole-wheat or mixed-grain bread (Health Canada, 2025). Other consistently high-sodium packaged categories in Canada include processed meats, canned soups, and condiments, though these were outside the scope of this assessment. The fastest way to compare products is the Nutrition Facts table: the “% Daily Value” for sodium tells you how one serving compares to the 2,300 mg daily reference.
Did Health Canada say these four foods are unhealthy?
No. The 2025 interim assessment is a progress report on voluntary sodium reduction targets, not a safety advisory (Health Canada, 2025). Health Canada is not saying pizza crust, tomato sauce, cereal, or bread is unsafe to eat. The report tracks whether food manufacturers met their own voluntary 2020-2025 commitments. For these four categories, sodium went up rather than down over the target period. The assessment gives shoppers useful context for label comparisons, not a verdict on whether to eat these foods.
What is the “High in Sodium” symbol on Canadian food packages?
Canada’s mandatory front-of-package nutrition labeling system, effective January 1, 2026, requires a magnifying glass symbol labeled “High in Sodium” on any packaged food where sodium exceeds 15% of the Daily Value per serving (345 mg). The symbol is visible on the front of the package before you read the back label. Products in the four categories from Health Canada’s 2025 interim assessment are among those most likely to display this symbol. For the full guide, see our Canada front-of-package nutrition label explainer.
Were Canada’s 2025 sodium reduction targets legally binding?
No. Canada’s 2020-2025 sodium reduction commitments were voluntary industry pledges, not regulations or laws. Food manufacturers agreed to meet category-level targets by choice, with no legal penalties for missing them (Health Canada, 2025). Some categories improved; the four named here went in the wrong direction. Canada does not currently have mandatory sodium content limits in packaged foods, though the front-of-package labeling rules require a disclosure symbol when sodium exceeds 15% Daily Value per serving.
Does the NoJunk app show sodium levels on Canadian food labels?
Yes. When you photograph a food label with NoJunk, the app reads the sodium content from the Nutrition Facts table and shows where that serving sits relative to the 2,300 mg daily reference. This works for any product with a standard Canadian nutrition label. The app also checks the ingredient list at the same time, so you get a complete picture from a single scan.
Last reviewed: 2026-06-22