The Tanzania Daily News reported Dec. 2 an effort by the Department of Nutrition to encourage consumers to stop buying "widely sold...unhealthy" iodized salt.

"Iodine is an essential micro-nutrient required for the normal growth and development of human beings," said Dr. Fatma Mahd Khamis, from the department of Nutrition in Dar es Salaam. She made the appeal at a (Zanzibar) training workshop for reporters that focused on the importance of encouraging people to use iodized salt.

She said it was unfortunate that salt without iodine has been widely sold in the market and that the best way was to ask consumers to avoid the unhealthy salt.