Salt or sodium? Read your drink label in Frewli

1. Check an exact label number

Use the nutrient amount from the nutrition panel, not the ingredient list or powder weight. For an “in this drink” value, adjust it to the actual consumed portion first. Per-100 mL and per-liter values use the consumed volume below.

2. Read the nutrition row, not the ingredient weight

The European Commission’s nutrition-label guidance includes salt in the nutrition declaration. Its food-information notice, section 3.2.4, uses salt = sodium × 2.5. To go from a nutrition salt value to sodium, divide by 2.5; multiply grams by 1,000 to express milligrams.

This factor is for the declared nutrient amount. A 5 g scoop of electrolyte powder, or the weight of a sodium-containing ingredient, is not 5 g of nutritional salt. “Electrolytes” can include several minerals. Find the sodium or salt row for the prepared drink and the preparation stated on its label.

Check the basis too. The FDA’s serving-size explanation distinguishes per-serving from per-package information. If a sodium amount describes 250 mL but you consumed 125 mL, use half that amount. A labeled serving is not automatically your consumed portion.

3. Match one of Frewli’s six units

Imagine a fictional 375 mL drink. Every row below describes the same 187.5 mg sodium total. These are invented label examples, not amounts to consume.

For the per-100 mL salt row: 0.125 × (375 ÷ 100) × 400 = 187.5 mg sodium. Keep unrounded values through the calculation. Entering a converted total into a per-100 mL field would scale it again.

4. Keep “less than” different from zero

<0.01 g salt / 100 ml is a bound, not an exact value. For 300 mL it implies less than 12 mg sodium, not exactly 12 mg or zero. This calculator requires an exact number and rejects bounds.

In Frewli, a sodium input beginning with < leaves sodium unknown and preserves that text with its unit in the saved label note. A blank amount is also unknown. An exact 0 is a known zero. Do not remove the less-than sign just to obtain a calculated number.

5. Enter the label once in Frewli

Open the intended drink’s editor and expand Caffeine and sodium (optional). Use Sodium or salt from label (optional) and Label unit. Either enter the original salt value with its matching salt unit, or use the calculated total with mg sodium in this drink.

Check Sodium in this drink before saving. Frewli displays sodium with up to one decimal place while retaining the underlying number; a rounded preview is not proof of an exact zero. Its form accepts whole volumes of 1–2,000 mL and sodium totals of 0–20,000 mg. These are validation limits, not recommended quantities; an excessive result is rejected, not clamped.

If the volume is already logged, add the label to that existing drink. Do not create another drink merely to attach sodium.

6. Recheck the unit when editing later

Reopening a known drink presents its saved total in mg sodium in this drink, rather than the original salt number or per-100 mL text. Keep the original nutrition label if you need to trace that calculation. A preserved bound note is different from an exact nutrient total.

When selecting a favorite, Frewli can express its known sodium as a per-liter rate for the chosen volume. Read the current unit before replacing its number, and correct the original record rather than adding a balancing entry.