Mayor Michael Bloomberg expanded his assault on salt Monday, announcing an initiative with 16 food companies and restaurant chains to help cut the country's sodium intake by 20 percent in five years.

Mars, Kraft, Heinz, Subway and Starbucks are among the companies trimming salt in products ranging from ketchup to bacon, as part of a national push to trim salt consumption by 20 percent over five years.

Officials say that 80 percent of Americans' sodium intake comes from salt added as preservatives to packaged food and restaurant meals.

The mayor admitted that he likes to put salt on popcorn, but said that added salt only accounts for 11 percent of Americans' sodium consumption. Another nine percent comes from naturally-occurring sodium in food.

He also said that salt guidelines will be made for lines of products, as opposed to individual products.

"Sodium and salt is a major cause of high blood pressure or hypertension, which, in turn, leads to heart disease and stroke," said the mayor. "These conditions kill more than 23,000 New Yorkers alone each year and more than 800,000 people across the country."

Officials said that most products that will reduce their sodium content do not even taste salty to consumers.

City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said that this initiative will include oversight to make sure that companies meet deadlines for salt reduction.

"This can be the start of a larger broader movement. When we eliminated smoking in bars and restaurants and when we banned trans fats and mandated calorie labeling, many people predicted that it wouldn't work, that it would hurt businesses and not achieve any goals, but just the opposite happened," said Bloomberg. "It worked, people like it and other cities and countries around the world followed our lead and now we will do it once again."

"When it comes to reducing high blood pressure and the health consequences by lowering sodium, these food companies are our nations' leaders," said Farley. "I would like to invite all other companies to come and make these same commitments."

Most health organizations recommend a range of 1,500 to 2,400 milligrams of salt a day for healthy adults.

Unlike the city's restaurant trans fat ban, the salt initiative is voluntary.

Meanwhile, the salt industry is already taking aim at the proposed plan.

In a statement, Salt Institute President Lori Roman said, "The Mayor's time would be better spent educating consumers on consumption of fruits and vegetables..."

While most doctors agree lowering salt intake won't decrease the risk of all cardiovascular disease it will still help.

"There are a lot of theories of whether salt is as big a culprit as we think it is for high blood pressure. Many people are affected by salt intake. What happens is they eat more salt and their blood pressure is higher," said Dr. Nieca Goldberg of the NYU Langone Medical Center.

Mayor Bloomberg says health officials are still in talks with other companies to join the sodium reduction effort. They also plan to check up on the food industry's progress.