With an average salt intake of 15 grams a day, Croatia is third in Europe, after Turkey and Hungary.
Croatians take three times more salt than recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which puts Croatia among countries with the highest rate of death from cardiovascular diseases, Varga said at a news conference.
The purpose of the recently adopted strategic plan is to reduce by 2025 the daily salt intake to 5 grams, in line with WHO recommendations.
The minister pointed to the correlation between excessive salt intake and high blood pressure and the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, underlining savings worth millions of kuna that could be made in the health system if salt intake was reduced.
He called on members of the public to stop additionally salting food and pay attention to information on the amount of salt on food labels, appealing to restaurants to remove salt-cellars from tables to prevent the salting of the already salted food.
Varga said an important part of the strategic plan was cooperation with the food industry and with schools and daycare centres so that children did not develop a taste for salty foods early in life.
As of next year, "Healthy Living" labels will be put on food products to mark products with allowed nutritional values.
The plan will also be implemented locally since information from the Public Health Institute shows that people in some counties eat extremely salty food, with the central Lika-Senj County being the worst in terms of salt intake.
WHO official Joao Breda welcomed Croatia's having recognised the problem of excessive salt intake and taking measures to deal with chronic noninfectious diseases, in which he said it would be supported by WHO.
High salt intake is connected with the high incidence of cardiovascular diseases. Salt intake in Europe is rather high so measures taken by Croatia will help save lives and money, said Breda.