For Campbell, Salt Content Is a Looming Tempest in a Soup Pot

Alamy Campbell Soup's (CPB) Thursday morning announcement of reported a better-than-predicted fourth quarter profit shouldn't have come as much of a surprise: For the last eight quarters, the world's largest soup manufacturer has reported steadily growing profits. This has been due in large part to a canny move to attract weight- and health-conscious consumers with a steadily increasing slate of healthier offerings. And it clearly has been working: Sales in its U.S. soup and sauce division were up 7 percent. Fat content is obviously a consideration when it comes to developing healthier soups, but sodium is the real bugaboo. Salt, after all, is the dark side of the broth: a highly effective flavor enhancer, it also happens to be far cheaper than vinegar, spices, and other premium ingredients. The trouble is, for health-minded consumers, especially Baby Boomers, salt doesn't just boost flavor -- it also drives up blood pressure. To sell its offerings as heart healthy, Campbell needed to cut the sodium. In its Healthy Request soup line, Campbell managed to get sodium down to 410 mg per serving, less than half the level of its standard offerings -- a move that garnered it the coveted heart-check mark from the American Heart Association. For customers in search of a health-conscious food at a low price, the new soups seemed almost perfect. The trouble is, while 410 mg per serving makes the Healthy Request line a healthier alternative to regular soups, it hardly qualifies the soups as healthy. On a salt-to-calories basis, they are still fairly out of balance, sodium-wise.