# Strategies for Reducing Sodium Intake in Bakery Products, a Review
## 4 Methods for Sodium Content Reduction in Bakery Products
### The Use of Different Types of Mineral Salts as Substitutes for Sodium Chloride in Bakery Products
Calcium is an important element for the health of the human body and has vital functions inside cells by transmitting signals between the plasma membrane and intracellular mechanisms. Extracellular calcium is an essential cofactor in the proper formation of bones. Decreased calcium content in the bones can cause conditions such as osteoporosis, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, malignancy, degenerative joint diseases. Increased calcium is recommended in colorectal cancer prevention treatments to lower blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels [101]. The uses of calcium chloride in the food industry are multiple as: anti-caking agent, antimicrobial agent, hardening agent, flavor enhancer, moisturizer, nutritional supplement, pH control agent, stabilizer and thickening agent, to improve textural properties, and so on. Various studies in the bakery products on the total substitution of NaCl with calcium chloride (CaCl\({}_{2}\)) have shown that this has led to a significant increase in water absorption capacity and a higher degree of dough softening due to the fact that a certain amount of water remains unabsorbed from the dough system. However, it was found that at lower levels (\(\sim\)25%) of NaCl substitution, the water absorption capacity decreased slightly, which a positive fact is because more protein-protein interactions occurred, leading to a stronger gluten network and stronger dough through cohesive forces [69; 102]. 1.2 The Use of Magnesium Chloride as a Substitute for Sodium Chloride in Bakery Products and the Benefits of Its Use on the Human Body  
Magnesium chloride (MgCl\({}_{2}\)) is one of the most common water-soluble natural magnesium compounds. It is found naturally in the salt waters of lakes or in sea water. Magnesium chloride is obtained from mineral salt deposits after the extraction of potassium chloride but also by direct extraction. Among the main sources of raw materials for the production of magnesium chloride, the most important is sea water. Magnesium can be directly precipitated from sea water in the form of magnesium hydroxide and converted to magnesium chloride [103]. Among the uses of magnesium chloride in the food industries are: coagulation; tofu production from soy milk; formula milk for babies, etc. The advantage of using magnesium chloride in food industry is that it can be a source of magnesium for the human body where it is one of the main minerals present quantitatively after potassium, calcium, phosphorus and sodium participating in carbohydrate, lipid metabolism, growth and cellular permeability. It is a catalytic element and also a plastic one and is a growth factor that helps regulate the balance of calcium in the human body having an anti-aging, anti-anaphylaxis and anti-atherosclerotic role [79]. To replace the nutrient losses in flour that occur during wheat processing and to reduce the risk of a deficiency in the body, the bakery industry has enriched white bread with various nutrients such as iron, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin [104]. Magnesium is considered to be one of the deficient elements in our diet although it is involved in the enzymatic reactions of carbohydrates, proteins, energy metabolism and maintaining the structural and functional integrity of human body tissues [105]. Along the benefits of magnesium consumptions are: fighting constipation, hypomagnesaemia, preventing convulsions in eclampsia/preclempsia, preventing acute nephritis (pediatric and adolescent patients), cardiac arrhythmias secondary to hypomagnesaemia, etc. [106]. [PERSON] [70] found that the addition of magnesium chloride in the dough reduces it development time and increases the water absorption capacity. Compared to the dough samples in which sodium chloride and potassium chloride were added in the bread recipe, it was found that there are significant differences from the rheological point of view only for the samples with magnesium chloride in dough recipe.