A food serving is considered high in sodium when it contains 20% or more of the Daily Value, which works out to 460 mg or more per serving based on the current Daily Value of 2,300 mg. On the other end, 5% DV or less (about 115 mg) counts as low sodium. These thresholds come from the FDA and are the quickest way to evaluate any packaged food in the grocery store.
The 5% and 20% Rule
The FDA uses a simple framework built around the percent Daily Value (%DV) listed on every Nutrition Facts label. At 5% DV or below, a serving is low in sodium. At 20% DV or above, it’s high. Anything between those two numbers falls in a moderate range. This rule works for any nutrient on the label, but it’s especially useful for sodium because the milligram numbers can be hard to put in context on their own.
The current Daily Value for sodium is 2,300 mg per day, so the math is straightforward. A serving with 460 mg of sodium hits that 20% mark. A serving with 115 mg or less qualifies as low. When you’re scanning labels, the %DV column on the right side of the panel is faster to read than doing mental math with milligrams.
Daily Limits Worth Knowing
The 2,300 mg Daily Value used on food labels reflects the upper limit recommended for most adults. The World Health Organization sets a tighter target of less than 2,000 mg per day, equivalent to just under one teaspoon of table salt. That difference matters because if you’re aiming for 2,000 mg, a serving at 20% DV is actually consuming closer to 23% of your personal daily budget.
Children have lower ceilings. The recommended upper intake is 1,900 mg per day for kids aged 4 to 8, 2,200 mg for ages 9 to 13, and 2,300 mg for those 14 and older. A single high-sodium serving that barely dents an adult’s daily limit can represent a much larger share of a child’s.
How Common Foods Stack Up
Certain food categories routinely land in the high-sodium zone, and the numbers can be startling. A cup of canned condensed black bean soup contains about 2,493 mg of sodium, which is more than an entire day’s worth in a single bowl. A packet of dry chicken noodle soup mix runs around 2,339 mg. Even a single bouillon cube packs roughly 955 mg.
Cheese is another consistent offender. A cup of diced processed American cheese spread contains about 2,275 mg, and a cup of crumbled feta comes in around 1,708 mg. You’re unlikely to eat a full cup of cheese in one sitting, but even a quarter of those amounts pushes a serving well past the 460 mg high-sodium threshold.
Frozen and fast foods are similarly dense. One slice of a frozen rising-crust cheese pizza (a quarter of the pie) has roughly 1,274 mg. A fast-food egg and bacon biscuit hits about 1,266 mg. Canned tomato sauce with onions runs 1,350 mg per cup, and canned baked beans with pork land around 1,047 mg per cup. These are all foods people eat in portions close to or exceeding the listed serving size, which means real-world intake is often higher than the label suggests.
Why Sodium Matters for Your Body
When you consume more sodium than your body needs, your kidneys hold onto extra water to keep the concentration of sodium in your blood balanced. That extra fluid increases the total volume of blood moving through your arteries, which raises blood pressure. Over time, the effects compound: blood vessel walls stiffen, the lining of arteries functions less efficiently, and the nervous system’s regulation of heart rate and blood vessel tone shifts in ways that sustain higher pressure even between meals.
This isn’t a theoretical concern limited to people with existing heart disease. Chronically elevated sodium intake is one of the most well-documented dietary drivers of hypertension across all age groups.
Reading Labels Beyond the Number
Sodium hides in ingredients you wouldn’t associate with salt. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), sodium nitrate in cured meats, sodium citrate in beverages, and monosodium glutamate all add to the total. The milligram count on the Nutrition Facts panel captures all of these sources, so you don’t need to decode the ingredient list to get an accurate picture. But it helps explain why foods that don’t taste salty, like bread, cereal, or cottage cheese, can still contribute significant sodium.
Pay close attention to serving sizes. Manufacturers sometimes list a serving that’s smaller than what most people actually eat. A can of soup might list nutrition for one cup when the can holds two and a half cups. If you eat the whole can, multiply everything on the label accordingly. The %DV is only useful if it reflects the amount you’re actually putting on your plate.
A Quick Label-Reading Strategy
When you’re in the store, you don’t need to memorize milligram thresholds for every food category. Just check the %DV for sodium on each product and apply the 5/20 rule:
- 5% DV or less (≤115 mg): Low sodium. A good choice if you’re watching intake.
- 6%–19% DV (116–459 mg): Moderate. Fine in the context of a balanced day, but worth tracking.
- 20% DV or more (≥460 mg): High sodium. One or two of these servings can take up most of your daily allowance.
Comparing two similar products takes seconds with this method. If one jar of pasta sauce sits at 18% DV and another at 8%, the lower option saves you several hundred milligrams over a meal without requiring any recipe changes. Those small swaps, repeated across a week of groceries, add up to a meaningful reduction in daily sodium intake.