Nutritional Quality of Pre-Packaged Foods in China under Various Nutrient Profile Models

Public Deposited
Analytics

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
Request Version for Screen Reader
Creator
  • Li, Yuan
    • Other Affiliation: The George Institute for Global Health
  • Wang, Huijun
    • Other Affiliation: University of New South Wales
  • Zhang, Puhong
    • Other Affiliation: The George Institute for Global Health
  • Popkin, Barry M.
    • Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Nutrition
  • Coyle, Daisy H.
    • Other Affiliation: University of New South Wales
  • Ding, Jingmin
    • Other Affiliation: The George Institute for Global Health
  • Dong, Le
    • Other Affiliation: The George Institute for Global Health
  • Zhang, Jiguo
    • Other Affiliation: Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Du, Wenwen
    • Other Affiliation: Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Pettigrew, Simone
    • Other Affiliation: University of New South Wales
Abstract
  • This study used various nutrient profile models (NPMs) to evaluate the nutritional quality of pre-packaged foods in China to inform future food policy development. Nutrition data for pre-packaged foods were collected through FoodSwitch China in 2017–2020. The analyses included 73,885 pre-packaged foods, including 8236 beverages and 65,649 foods. Processed foods (PFs) and ultra-processed foods (UPFs) accounted for 8222 (11.4%) and 47,003 (63.6%) of all products, respectively. Among the 55,425 PFs and UPFs, the overall proportion of products with an excessive quantity of at least one negative nutrient was 86.0% according to the Chilean NPM (2019), 83.3% for the Pan American Health Organization NPM (PAHO NPM), and 90.6% for the Western Pacific Region NPM for protecting children from food marketing (WPHO NPM), respectively. In all NPMs, 70.4% of PFs and UPFs were identified as containing an excessive quantity of at least one negative nutrient, with higher proportions of UPFs compared to PFs. Food groups exceeding nutrient thresholds in most NPMs included snack foods, meat and meat products, bread and bakery products, non-alcoholic beverages, confectionery, and convenience foods. In conclusion, PFs and UPFs accounted for three-fourths of pre-packaged foods in China, and the majority of PFs and UPFs exceeded the threshold for at least one negative nutrient under all three NPMs. Given the need to prevent obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases, efforts are warranted to improve the healthiness of foods in China through evidence-based food policy.
Date of publication
Keyword
DOI
Identifier
Resource type
  • Article
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
License
  • Attribution 3.0 United States
Journal title
  • Nutrients
Journal volume
  • 14
Journal issue
  • 13
Page start
  • 2700
Language
  • English
Version
  • Publisher
ISSN
  • 2072-6643

Relations

Parents:

This work has no parents.

In Collection:

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details nutrients-14-02700.pdf 2022-07-06 Public Download