The use of sodium in processed foods, including meats, has been in existent over centuries. Its use is mainly as a food and meat processing aid, and a preservative and flavourant. Even with modern methods of food processing, sodium is still essential in food and meat derivatives due to different dietary demands by consumers. Sodium chloride, sodium nitrate and nitrite are common in meat processing for various uses such as curing, smoking and brining. Due to the increasing global sodium intake, chronic adverse health effects, such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, stroke, cancers, among others, have also been on the rise, particularly in urban areas. African countries have a proportional increase of dietary sodium due to the adoption of western diets with high sodium and saturated fats. Subsequently, South Africa promulgated legislation that prescribed the first mandatory sodium limits in 2013. The purpose of this review is to determine, (1) the sodium reduction interventions agreed by African states in forums and meetings in the past five years (2017-2021) and, (2) sodium reduction strategies recommended through research by African scholars. This systemic review was conducted from English literature published between 2017 and 2021, using Science web, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, with a specific focus on African countries. From the findings of this systemic review, there were minimal sodium reduction interventions by African states, emanating from published forums and meetings, to establish collaborated sodium reduction strategies in processed foods. The studies conducted by African scholars in the past five years recommended sodium reduction interventions, such as legislative framework, product reformulation, monitoring models and consumer awareness, with most studies done in South Africa. It is evident that to have a meaningful impact on the control and reduction of dietary sodium, African countries require existing diplomacies to collaborate on sodium reduction efforts with public and private partnerships; this can be coordinated through inter-trade treaties among the African states. This requires an increase in research, commitment and the will to reduce dietary sodium in processed foods and meat by all member states. Key words: sodium, reduction, processed, meat, processing, effects, hypertension, nitrate, nitrite

The common use of sodium in different compositions, is as a preservative, for colouring, curing, flavouring and as a binding agent in processed meats, it is also used for improved shelf life and distinct palatability. Even with modern food processing methods, sodium is still essential in manufacturing of meat derivatives. Continuous consumption of high sodium diets is associated with adverse chronic health effects, such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, stroke, cancers, among others, which have been on the rise. As a result, there has been a global drive by organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) to advise member states to reduce dietary sodium levels in various foods, including processed meats. Consequently, South Africa promulgated the first sodium reduction regulations in Africa by 2013, intended to reduce sodium in certain foodstuffs, including processed meat products. The objectives of this study were to determine (1) the level of sodium in processed meats produced by local butcheries in the City of Tshwane (CoT), Gauteng, South Africa and (2) to compare the amount of sodium in processed meats, determined using the two South African legislated methods, namely Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (FAAS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES). A cross-sectional approach with qualitative and experimental dimensions approach was followed. Processed meat production records obtained from randomly selected butcheries in CoT (122) revealed that the top six commonly produced processed meats were boerewors (90.2 %), braaiwors (87.7 %), biltong (86.9 %), drywors (62.3 %), viennas (45.9 %) and burger patties (43.5 %). Subsequently, sampling (n=396) of the top six products from 66 randomly selected butcheries was done. The findings of the study revealed that processed meats analysed using ICP-AES and FAAS contained mean sodium levels of 1449 mg/100 g and 649 mg/100 g, respectively (p<0.0001), which were higher than the South African legal sodium limits. The concentration of sodium of products determined using ICP-AES (64.7 - 9201 mg/100 g) was significantly (p<0.0001) higher than in the same products analysed using FAAS (35.4 - 2351 mg/100 g). From the findings of this study, sodium reduction requires a concerted effort in enforcing the South African mandatory sodium limits in local butcheries in processed meats. The results of legislated sodium test methods must be comparable to ensure equal level of compliance. Key words: meat products, sodium reduction, processed food, processed meat, sodium limits