In comments filed Jan. 24, the National Restaurant Association told the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service that government mandates aren’t the way to go in reducing the use of sodium in food.

"Incremental reductions over time are the best way that meaningful sodium reductions will occur. Mandatory targets are unrealistic, unnecessary, and fail to address head-on the primacy of how consumers purchase, prepare and consume foods every day," we wrote. "Sodium reduction for menu items is a complex, highly technical, expensive, and labor-intensive task that challenges our current knowledge and food-science limits for product development."

The agencies solicited comments last September on how to cut sodium consumption in the United States. Read the NRA's full comments.