The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and British Retail Consortium (BRC) have published a report that claims UK retailers and manufacturers are "reaching the limit" of what they can achieve on salt reduction.
The project, undertaken by Leatherhead Food Research, set out to identify techniques to reduce salt in foods, which would also address the related problems of products having a shorter shelf-life or "lacking taste or texture".
The report, however, claims potential future methods exist but need either "considerably more scientific development", including establishing their safety for consumption, or have yet to be tried in actual foods.
Leatherhead announced it was undertaking the research in December last year.
As part of the UK government's Public Health Responsibility Deal, a set of policies to improve public health, the country's food industry pledged to cut salt content by a further 15% on targets set for 2010 by 2012.
