India's Union Health Ministry announced on Sunday that it will formally incorporate potassium-enriched salt substitutes into the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, following a widely circulated expert consensus statement published a day earlier calling for nationwide adoption to reduce hypertension-related mortality.

The ministry said a pilot programme will be launched in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal — states identified as carrying the highest hypertension burden — through the existing mid-day meal scheme infrastructure serving roughly 120 million schoolchildren. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will oversee monitoring of blood pressure outcomes over a 12-month period beginning in the third quarter of 2026.

Dr. Rajiv Bahl, Director-General of ICMR, said the decision builds directly on clinical evidence showing that substituting 25 to 50 percent of sodium chloride with potassium chloride can reduce systolic blood pressure by a clinically meaningful margin in high-risk populations. "This is a cost-effective, scalable intervention that requires no change in consumer behaviour," Bahl said in a statement released from New Delhi.

The move draws on a model pioneered in China's SALT Substitute and Stroke Study and echoes calls from the World Health Organization, which has urged low- and middle-income countries to adopt potassium salt policies as a low-cost cardiovascular intervention. India currently records an estimated 220 million hypertension cases, with fewer than one in five patients achieving adequate blood pressure control.

Nutrition advocacy groups including the Public Health Foundation of India welcomed the announcement but cautioned that consumer labelling standards for potassium-enriched salt sold at retail level remain inconsistent, and urged the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to issue updated labelling rules within 90 days to accompany the programme rollout.