Health minister Edith Schippers has finally reached agreement with the food industry on reducing the amount of salt in food, the AD reports on Friday.

The aim is to reduce public consumption of salt from nine grammes step by step to a maximum of six a day by 2020, the paper says.

According to the Dutch consumers’ association Consumentenbond, the reduction in salt intake will lead to 2,200 fewer deaths a year. Some 85% of the Dutch eat too much salt, 80% of which comes from processed foods, the AD says.