The salt is too darn high.

On average, American adults aren’t just eating more salt than they should — they’re eating one-and-a-half times the government guidelines.

The bulk of that consumption — three-quarters — comes from restaurant foods, spurring a Food and Drug Administration effort to get companies to do something about it — voluntarily.

The proposed guidelines, released today, recommend sodium goals by restaurant product or menu item, 150 categories in total, designed with a salt intake goal for Americans in mind.

“Many Americans want to reduce sodium in their diets, but that’s hard to do when much of it is in everyday products we buy in stores and restaurants,” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. “Today’s announcement is about putting power back in the hands of consumers, so that they can better control how much salt is in the food they eat and improve their health.”

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit, says it has urged the FDA to reduce salt in foods for 10 years, suing the agency to that effect last fall.

The organization’s president, Michael F. Jacobson, pointed out that the FDA’s proposal was voluntary, in contrast with the mandatory approach CSPI requested.

Still, he said, “it provides clear goals by which companies can be held accountable. And, it helps level the playing field for those companies that are already trying to use less salt in their foods.”

New York City enacted similar, albeit non-voluntary, legislation last fall, requiring chain restaurants to put warning icons next to salty foods.

Americans are buying — and eating — more salt than ever, surveys show.

On average, adults consume 3,400 milligrams a day, exceeding government guidelines of 2,300 milligrams a day, a recommendation that’s smaller for those ages 51 and over and African-Americans, at about 1,500 milligrams.

Read more: Americans rekindle their love affair with salt

Over the years, the sodium in many restaurant items has only increased, CSPI notes, with some items even containing a whole day’s worth of salt. Variations in salt level are common on grocery store shelves, too, with many comparable products containing drastically different sodium measures.

Selected companies have already done some work in this vein, including Au Bon Pain, Boar’s Head, Campbell Soup Company CPB, -0.32% , Fresh Direct, Goya Foods, H.J. Heinz Company and Kraft Foods KHC, -2.93% , Starbucks SBUX, -2.07% , Subway, Target TGT, +0.82% and Unilever UL, -2.51% .

But mostly, the move would most stand to benefit consumers themselves, since a salt-heavy diet can cause hypertension, and thus heart disease and stroke, two leading U.S. causes of death.

By some government estimates, it would also cut costs for the health care system, saving billions of dollars over time.

The proposal is now open for comment, which the FDA will review before issuing final guidelines.