Abstract
IntroductionThe Choices Programme is an internationally applicable nutrient profiling system with nutrition criteria for trans fatty acids (TFA), saturated fatty acids, sodium, added sugar and for some product groups energy and fibre. These criteria determine whether foods are eligible to carry a “healthier option” stamp. In this paper a nutrient intake modelling method is described to evaluate these nutritional criteria by investigating the potential effect on nutrient intakes.MethodsData were combined from the 2003 Dutch food consumption survey in young adults (aged 19–30) and the Dutch food composition table into the Monte Carlo Risk Assessment model. Three scenarios were calculated: the “actual intakes” (scenario 1) were compared to scenario 2, where all foods that did not comply were replaced by similar foods that did comply with the Choices criteria. Scenario 3 was the same as scenario 2 adjusted for the difference in energy density between the original and replacement food. Additional scenarios were calculated where snacks were not or partially replaced and stratified analyses for gender, age, Body Mass Index (BMI) and education.ResultsCalculated intake distributions showed that median energy intake was reduced by 16% by replacing normally consumed foods with Choices compliant foods. Intakes of nutrients with a maximal intake limit were also reduced (ranging from −23% for sodium and −62% for TFA). Effects on intakes of beneficial nutrients varied from an unintentional reduction in fat soluble vitamin intakes (−15 to −28%) to an increase of 28% for fibre and 17% calcium. Stratified analyses in this homogeneous study population showed only small differences across gender, age, BMI and education.ConclusionsThis intake modelling method showed that with consumption of Choices compliant foods, nutrient intakes shift towards population intake goals for the nutrients for which nutrition criteria were defined, while effects on beneficial nutrients were diverse.
Highlights
The Choices Programme is an internationally applicable nutrient profiling system with nutrition criteria for trans fatty acids (TFA), saturated fatty acids, sodium, added sugar and for some product groups energy and fibre
In 2004, WHO launched the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health [5] in which one of the recommendations to the private sector was to limit the levels of TFA, saturated fatty acids (SAFA), salt and free sugars in existing products in order to contribute to reducing the burden of chronic diseases [1]
We evaluated the potential impact of Choices on a broad range of nutrient intakes in a Dutch population of young adults aged 19–30 years using a Monte Carlo Risk Assessment (MCRA) model [14]
Summary
The Choices Programme is an internationally applicable nutrient profiling system with nutrition criteria for trans fatty acids (TFA), saturated fatty acids, sodium, added sugar and for some product groups energy and fibre. In 2004, WHO launched the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health [5] in which one of the recommendations to the private sector was to limit the levels of TFA, SAFA, salt and free sugars in existing products in order to contribute to reducing the burden of chronic diseases [1]. This discrepancy between dietary recommendations and actual intakes forms the basis of various initiatives in defining targets for food reformulation [6,7]. These so-called observed individual means (OIMs) measure the actual usual intake with appreciable random error, and as a consequence the distribution of OIMs is too broad: both the low-end tail and the high-end tail of the OIM distribution over-estimate the frequency of true low and high intakes (see Figure 1, green curve, mean two days)
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