A comparison of the healthiness of packaged foods and beverages from 12 countries using the Health Star Rating nutrient profiling system, 2013–2018

Abstract

Summary We compared the healthiness of packaged foods and beverages between selected countries using the Health Star Rating (HSR) nutrient profiling system. Packaged food and beverage data collected 2013–2018 were obtained for Australia, Canada, Chile, China, India, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia, South Africa, the UK, and USA. Each product was assigned to a food or beverage category and mean HSR was calculated overall by category and by country. Median energy density (kJ/100 g), saturated fat (g/100 g), total sugars (g/100 g) and sodium (mg/100 g) contents were calculated. Countries were ranked by mean HSR and median nutrient levels. Mean HSR for all products (n = 394,815) was 2.73 (SD 1.38) out of 5.0 (healthiest profile). The UK, USA, Australia and Canada ranked highest for overall nutrient profile (HSR 2.74–2.83) and India, Hong Kong, China and Chile ranked lowest (HSR 2.27–2.44). Countries with higher overall HSR generally ranked better with respect to nutrient levels. India ranked consistently in the least healthy third for all measures. There is considerable variability in the healthiness of packaged foods and beverages in different countries. The finding that packaged foods and beverages are less healthy in middle‐income countries such as China and India suggests that nutrient profiling is an important tool to enable policymakers and industry actors to reformulate products available in the marketplace to reduce the risk of obesity and NCDs among populations.

Pyrraline Formation Modulated by Sodium Chloride and Controlled by Encapsulation with Different Coating Materials in the Maillard Reaction

“…Certain AGEs, such as CML and pyrraline, are likely to form at 120–200 °C [26,27,28]. Some studies [29,30,31,32,33] have reported that the sodium content (expressed as a percentage of mass concentration) ranges between 0.00% and 1.00% in foods, including packaged, commercially processed, and restaurant foods. Therefore, in this study, we used a temperature range of 140–180 °C and a sodium content of 0.00–1.00%.…”

Understanding the rise of cardiometabolic diseases in low- and middle-income countries

“…[65][66][67][68] Moreover, recent evidence indicates that the nutrient composition of packaged food products varies importantly around the world, being considerably less healthy in LMICs such as Chile and Mexico. 69 No age group is unexposed to these dietary trends, and even infants are at risk of receiving energy-dense micronutrient-poor complementary foods. 70 Importantly, food prices have also evolved in recent years in LMICs.…”

Changes in the amount of nutrient of packaged foods and beverages after the initial implementation of the Chilean Law of Food Labelling and Advertising: A nonexperimental prospective study

“…These results can be useful to other countries that are on their way to implementing or have already implemented the use of warning labels for unhealthy packaged foods to prevent obesity, such as Peru, Uruguay, Israel, Mexico, Canada, and Brazil. A comparative study of the healthiness of packaged foods and beverages from 12 countries reported a poor HSR score for the packaged food supply in Chile in 2015 (only Hong Kong and India had poorer scores) [37], suggesting the external validity of our findings could vary from country to country.…”