Design and methods of the German monitoring of packaged food in the European context

Abstract

Reformulation strategies to reduce the energy, salt, sugar, total fat, and saturated fat content of packaged food are one means to improve the food offer and facilitate healthier food choices. In Germany, the “National Reduction and Innovation Strategy for Sugar, Fats, and Salt”, which runs from 2019 to 2025, is guided by a yearly product monitoring of packaged food. The product monitoring focuses on food categories with a major contribution to dietary intake of sugar, total and saturated fat, and salt, and on products targeted at children. Nutrition labelling information taken from manufacturer's websites serves as the primary data source and is collected manually. Analyses include the current energy, salt, sugar, total fat, and saturated fat content as well as changes of energy and nutrient content over time on the level of food categories and subcategories. Monitoring results are presented on a yearly basis for the comprehensive product range and, for selected product categories, for top-selling products. Differences in data collection and evaluation methods and limited information about the approaches taken by others hamper the comparison with further national monitoring approaches in Europe. Ongoing research projects related to the German monitoring of packaged food seek to a) automate the German data collection and b) harmonize the monitoring across Europe.