Industry bodies in Europe are taking steps to seize control of the salt reduction agenda - and head off pressure from the European Commission. CIAA, the umbrella organisation for Europe's manufacturing associations, is consulting members - including the UK's Food and Drink Federation - on the establishment of an industry taskforce to set salt reduction targets. It is due to decide next month whether to give the green light to the group, which would be made up of experts from food companies across the EU. Meanwhile, the European Dairy Association has decided to set up a taskforce to look at reducing salt in cheese. The moves come in the wake of the publication of the Commission's White Paper on Nutrition in June, in which the Commission said it would begin a study next year to "explore the potential for the reformulation of foods". Pawel Szatkowski, CIAA's manager of consumer diet and health, said it hoped its group could work closely with the European Commission on any reformulation. "We want to base this on a private-public partnership approach," he said. In the UK, the Food Standards Agency has asked food companies for progress reports on their salt reduction strategies. However, some trade bodies have expressed concern that the deadline for submitting the information - 10 October - is too tight. The FSA is asking companies to provide market share figures for each product as well as information about salt levels, which could put some companies' resources under pressure, said Ed Komorowski, technical director at Dairy UK. His view was echoed by Elizabeth Andoh-Kesson, technical director of the British Meat Processors Association. "The timescale is going to be fairly difficult, particularly given the amount of time and resources that has had to be devoted to other issues recently, such as foot and mouth," she said. But an FSA spokeswoman said: "If individual organisations have any concerns about the timescales, we are more than happy to discuss these with them directly."