Reference is made to the slogan used for the salt awareness campaign and the comment made in Odds and Ends (TMID, 9 February). This is a health promotion slogan and therefore is not part of a sentence. It was decided to use a “Pinch of Salt ONLY” (Niskata Melh BISS) to put an emphasis on that particular word so that people remember that they should just take a pinch of salt.

Since our campaign is to reduce the consumption of salty foods and not to add more salt to foods due to the health implications of salt, the word ONLY was crucial and putting it at the end of the phrase would help the general population remember that our intake of salt should stop at a pinch of salt!

Dr Charmaine Gauci

Director Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Public Health Regulation Division

Ministry for Social Policy

Editorial note: The need to emphasise the word “only” is understood. But the positioning of the word “only” (biss) gives the slogan a totally different meaning than the one intended.