EFFORTS OF 'S-1 GRAND PRIX', A DELICIOUS LESS SALT RECIPE CONTEST AIMED AT PREVENTING CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES

ABSTRACT

Purpose: As the average salt intake of Japanese people is as high as 10 gram per day, it is necessary to reduce the salt intake for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. We held a less salt recipe contest to promote delicious less salt recipes among society and examined the potentiality of 'deliciously less salt meals'. Method: National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center (NCVC) held the 'The 5th S-1 Grand Prix', a contest to develop delicious and less salt bento recipes on a nationwide scale. The contest named after its goal of reducing the salt intake by 1 gram in each meal. Under the theme of a delicious and attractive less salt bento meeting to the nutritional value standards (such as less than 2 gram of salt equivalent per meal), NCVC called for the bento recipe ideas from the 10th of May to 26th of July 2021. All the applied recipes are evaluated and tasted by NCVC contest board members, then the best one was decided for a 'Grand-Prix' award. Contest was held on-line due to the COVID-19, the video presentation made by the applicants were evaluated for the final selection. Result: A total of 67 teams (25 teams in the general category, 15 teams in the student category, 27 teams in the disaster nutrition category) were applied to this contest. We encouraged governments, hospitals, dietitian training schools, and convention-related companies and organizations nationwide to apply the contest. Compared to the 4th tournament, the number of applicants were increased by 16 teams. More than half of the applicants were from 'educational institutions such as universities'. Although the 5th tournament was held online, we were able to hold a recipe contest in a new format, such as using applicants' video presentation for the final selection. Discussion: In the disaster nutrition category, many recipes for the delicious, preserved foods and cooking methods under the disaster were gathered, so that these less salt recipes can be widely adopted in the disaster foods. Through this attempt, we created an opportunity to make a delicious less salt meals, and motivated participants to cook 'deliciously less salt meals'. In the future, more people will participate in this contest in order to get them to participate, we will consider the conditions of the recipe and the recruitment method.