scholarly journals Nutritional quality, child-oriented marketing and health/nutrition claims on sweet biscuit, breakfast cereal and dairy-based dessert packs in Argentina

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Allemandi ◽  
Luciana Castronuovo ◽  
Maria Victoria Tiscornia ◽  
Patricia Gutkowski ◽  
Julieta Gijena ◽  
...  

As children are particularly vulnerable to marketing, this study analyzes marketing techniques and health/nutrition claims in food packaging and evaluates the nutritional quality in three food categories: sweet biscuits, breakfast cereals and dairy-based desserts. This descriptive study analyzed marketing techniques and claims included in food packaging (n = 301) in one of the largest retailers in Argentina. Trained researchers coded data following an adapted version of the INFORMAS protocol to account for local food packaging regulations. Nutritional quality was assessed using both Pan American Health Organization Nutrient Profile (PAHO NPM) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe Nutrient Profile (WHO Euro NPM) models. Under the PAHO model, 87% (n 262) of the product sample presented excess content of at least one nutrient (“less healthy” products), and 91% (n = 273) should not be marketed to children according to the WHO Euro model. Almost 40% of less healthy food products displayed nutrition claims on their package. Characters or celebrity endorsements, which are particularly attractive to children, featured in 32% of less healthy products, being more frequent in less healthy food products than in healthier ones. Results indicate that packaging for food products with low nutritional value often includes powerful marketing elements in Argentina, which renders young children very vulnerable to obesogenic influence. Moreover, the real nutritional value of the products analyzed were often at odds with the health claims shown on its package. Food labeling policies must be improved in Argentina to guarantee people’s health protection against deceptive advertising.

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 1409-1417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suladda Pongutta ◽  
Pitipa Chongwatpol ◽  
Parwin Tantayapirak ◽  
Stefanie Vandevijvere

AbstractObjectiveThe present study assessed the nutrition information displayed on ready-to-eat packaged foods and the nutritional quality of those food products in Thailand.DesignIn March 2015, the nutrition information panels and nutrition and health claims on ready-to-eat packaged foods were collected from the biggest store of each of the twelve major retailers, using protocols developed by the International Network for Food and Obesity/Non-communicable Diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS). The Thai Nutrient Profile Model was used to classify food products according to their nutritional quality as ‘healthier’ or ‘less healthy’.ResultsIn total, information from 7205 food products was collected across five broad food categories. Out of those products, 5707 (79·2 %), 2536 (35·2 %) and 1487 (20·6 %) carried a nutrition facts panel, a Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) label and health-related claims, respectively. Only 4691 (65·1 %) and 2484 (34·5 %) of the products that displayed the nutrition facts or a GDA label, respectively, followed the guidelines of the Thai Food and Drug Administration. In total, 4689 products (65·1 %) could be classified according to the Thai Nutrient Profile Model, of which 432 products (9·2 %) were classified as healthier. Moreover, among the 1487 products carrying health-related claims, 1219 (82·0 %) were classified as less healthy. Allowing less healthy food products to carry claims could mislead consumers and result in overconsumption of ready-to-eat food products.ConclusionsThe findings suggest effective policies should be implemented to increase the relative availability of healthier ready-to-eat packaged foods, as well as to improve the provision of nutrition information on labels in Thailand.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 988-997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asha Kaur ◽  
Peter Scarborough ◽  
Anne Matthews ◽  
Sarah Payne ◽  
Anja Mizdrak ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectiveThe present study aimed to measure the prevalence of different types of health and nutrition claims on foods and non-alcoholic beverages in a UK sample and to assess the nutritional quality of such products carrying health or nutrition claims.DesignA survey of health and nutrition claims on food packaging using a newly defined taxonomy of claims and internationally agreed definitions of claim types.SettingA national UK food retailer: Tesco.SubjectsThree hundred and eighty-two products randomly sampled from those available through the retailer’s website.ResultsOf the products, 32 % (95 % CI 28, 37 %) carried either a health or nutrition claim; 15 % (95 % CI 11, 18 %) of products carried at least one health claim and 29 % (95 % CI 25, 34 %) carried at least one nutrition claim. When adjusted for product category, products carrying health claims tended to be lower in total fat and saturated fat than those that did not, but there was no significant difference in sugar or sodium levels. Products carrying health claims had slightly higher fibre levels than products without. Results were similar for comparisons between products that carry nutrition claims and those that do not.ConclusionsHealth and nutrition claims appear frequently on food and beverage products in the UK. The nutrient profile of products carrying claims is marginally healthier than for similar products without claims, suggesting that claims may have some but limited informational value. The implication of these findings for guiding policy is unclear; future research should investigate the ‘clinical relevance’ of these differences in nutritional quality.


Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1772
Author(s):  
Mariana Santos ◽  
Filipa Matias ◽  
Ana Isabel Rito ◽  
Isabel Castanheira ◽  
Duarte Torres ◽  
...  

Ready-to-eat cereals (RTECs) have become a popular breakfast option claiming to provide important nutrients to children’s diets, despite being a source of excess sugar and, therefore, a health concern. Thus, food reformulation constitutes an important public health strategy that could benefit from inputs provided by nutrient profiling. This study aimed to assess the adequacy of the RTECs for children available in Portuguese supermarkets, applying three nutrient profile models (NPMs)—the nutrient profile model of the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe (WHO-EURO), the profile of the private-sector EU Pledge (EU-Pledge), and the national model developed by the Directorate-General of Health (NPM-PT)—in order to explore the potential for reformulation of the RTECs identified as not adequate and evaluate the impact of RTECs’ reformulation on the nutritional quality of Portuguese children’s diets. In total, 78 RTECs intended for children were assessed and two scenarios—current (not considering reformulation) and alternative (considering reformulation to accomplish the nutrient profile requirements)—were considered to assess the impact of reformulation on nutritional quality. Across all RTECs, only 5.1% could be promoted to children according to the considered NPMs. The most common nutrients requiring reformulation were sugar, saturated fatty acids (SFA), salt, and dietary fiber. The scenarios of reformulation considered could reduce the RTECs average content of total sugars, SFA, and salt by 43%, 8.7%, and 1.1%, respectively, and dietary fiber intake could be increased by 34%. Thus, these results support policies to implement reformulation strategies for developing healthier food products to be promoted to children.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amal Almughthim ◽  
Hoda Jr

Abstract Background Products that carry health or nutrition claims may be perceived by consumers as healthier than those that do not carry claims. Therefore, they will have a more favorable attitude towards it and may also be easily misled about the nutritional profile and may misinterpret it. Nutritional quality of those products should be assessed to protect consumers against being misled and ensuring that they receive accurate information about food products carrying a claim.Methods a cross-sectional survey for a total of 1153 foods were randomly sampled from fourteen stores in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The data were collected from nutritional facts present on food labels and evaluated by comparing the mean level of nutrients between products that carried claims and those that did not using the UK nutrient profile model (UKNPM).Results Overall, 29% of products carried either health or nutritional claims. Only 19.2% of foods that carried health claims met SFDA requirements, while 28.9% of all products that carried nutritional claims met SFDA criteria. The results indicate that products that carried health or nutritional claims were significantly lower in sugar (9.67 g/100 g), fat (9.2 g/100 g), saturated fat (3.2 g/100 g), and sodium (371.36 mg/100 g). According to the UK nutrient profiling model, 46.9% of the products carrying claims were less healthy than those not carrying claims, and statistically significant differences were observed by product origin and category (p=0.005 and p=0.000, respectively).Conclusion a great need for the regulation and monitoring of claims on food packages for the optimal protection of the population’s health.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 107-128
Author(s):  
Krystyna Gutkowska ◽  
Jacek Czarnecki

AbstractIn order to identify the attitudes of consumers towards innovative food products, including functional foods, qualitative research was carried out in 2019 to find out what are the components of these attitudes in relation to innovative food, on the example of functional food, in the conditions of the growing global tendency to care for health and convenience. As a result of the research carried out using the focus group interview (FGI) methodology, it was found that innovative food is associated with a new taste or packaging, increased nutritional value, as well as health related attributes. Often, in studies, consumers also referred to the reduction or complete elimination of allergenic ingredients and other chemical ingredients, e.g. preservatives, flavor enhancers. Consumers accept these innovations in different ways, generally showing skepticism about “improving” food by enriching it with various ingredients, while positively referring to changes related to the reduction in the content of nutrients considered harmful to health, e.g. fat, sugar or salt. It was also noted that innovativeness treated as a personality trait is accompanied by such features as: openness, tolerance, optimism, life satisfaction, while people lacking tendency to accept innovation are usually pessimistic about the world, attached to tradition or thrifty. It was also noted that consumers similarly perceive innovative and functional food, indicating that functional products are food with a specific health purpose, with a modified composition. The interviewees also indicated that it is possible to increase the interest of consumers in purchasing new food products or functional food through, inter alia, well targeted marketing messages, and it is necessary to take into account the legal regulations regarding their wording when formulating them. This applies in particular to the possibility of using nutrition and health claims in the case of products enriched with ingredients with a declared health-related effect.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Ujang Sumarwan ◽  
Megawati Simanjuntak ◽  
Lilik Noor Yuliati

<p>Labels are an integral part of a product. Observing the labels on the packaging, especially food products is considered very important to do. However, the label of food packaging products receives less attention from consumers. Therefore, the public is required to be more ingenious in observing the label of food packaging products to avoid food security problems which have adverse health effects. The purpose of this study was to map the results of research on label reading behavior. The design of this study was a literature study of research results that can be accessed via the internet. The results showed that the behavior of reading food product labels was done before buying the product (Aulawi 2005; Susanto 2008; Kumalasari and Sjafei 2012). From the frequency of reading nutrition labels, it could be found out that 42.5 percent of consumers sometimes read and 30.2 percent often read food packaging labels (Andrias 2016). Of the 52 studies, 17 studies have shown that women often read more and notice label attributes on food product packaging. The most commonly read consumer label (Figure 3) was the kosher logo and nutritional value. Food products that are usually labeled are packaged foods. Nutrition and health claims are considered as a means of education for consumers - 14 percent to know new information and 86 percent of consumers decided to read the labels because of the outside factors, such as advertising, internet, or at school.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 721-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Cabral Rebouças ◽  
Maria do Carmo Passos Rodrigues ◽  
Silvia Maria de Freitas ◽  
Bruno Burnier Arcanjo Ferreira ◽  
Vanderson da Silva Costa

Purpose The number of researches that evaluate how behavioural and personality issues affect consumers’ acceptance and perception of food is increasing. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of nutritional information and health claims related to soya and cashew nut beverages over consumers’ acceptance and perception regarding nutritional value and healthiness and to verify whether behavioural and personality issues affect such evaluation. Design/methodology/approach The samples were evaluated in two phases, with (blind phase) and without information (informed phase) about their composition, nutritional characteristics and functional claims related to some of their ingredients. The sensory evaluation data were analysed by means of the analysis of variance for repeated measures, applying 2 (information) × 2 (beverage) and generalised linear model to evaluate the effect of information over the acceptance averages, as well as over the perception of healthy food and nutritional value. Findings Information on composition, nutritional characteristics and functional claims related to the cashew nut and soya beverages did not influence flavour acceptance (p-value = 0.250) and overall impression (p-value = 0.316), but had a positive impact on consumers’ perception regarding healthiness (p-value < 0.001) and nutritious value (p-value < 0.001) of both beverages, the cashew nut beverage being perceived as more nutritious and healthier than the soya beverage. Consumers’ different characteristics with respect to their interest in healthy eating (high and low) and food neophobia (neophiliacs and neophobics) did not have any influence on the beverages’ acceptance, as well as on the perception of healthy food and nutritious value. Originality/value This work compares consumers’ acceptance and perception regarding nutritional value and healthiness with relation a totally unique product in the Brazilian market, and in the world, a new functional beverage made from cashew nuts, with a soya-milk beverage. Until this moment, there are no studies comparing consumer acceptance and perception of products based on hydrosoluble extract-base added with fruit juice which evaluate the influence of behavioural and personality characteristics of consumers in their perception and acceptance towards these products.


2019 ◽  
Vol 104 (6) ◽  
pp. 541-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ada L García ◽  
Gabriela Morillo-Santander ◽  
Alison Parrett ◽  
Antonina N Mutoro

ObjectivesTo investigate the nutritional quality of foods marketed to children in the UK and to explore the use of health and nutrition claims.DesignThis cross-sectional study was carried out in a wide range of UK food retailers. Products marketed to children above the age of 1 year containing any of a range of child friendly themes (i.e. cartoons, toys and promotions), and terms suggesting a nutritious or healthy attribute such as ‘one of 5-a-day’, on product packaging were identified both in stores and online. Information on sugar, salt and fat content, as well as health and nutrition claims, was recorded. The Ofcom nutrient profiling model (NPM) was used to assess if products were healthy.ResultsThree hundred and thirty-two products, including breakfast cereals, fruit snacks, fruit-based drinks, dairy products and ready meals, were sampled. The use of cartoon characters (91.6%), nutrition claims (41.6%) and health claims (19.6%) was a common marketing technique. The one of 5-a-day claim was also common (41.6%), but 75.4% (103) of products which made this claim were made up of less than 80 g of fruit and vegetables. Sugar content (mean±SD per 100 g) was high in fruit snacks (48.4±16.2 g), cereal bars (28.9±7.5 g) and cereals (22.9±8.0 g). Overall, 41.0% of the products were classified as less healthy according to the Ofcom NPM.ConclusionA large proportion of products marketed to children through product packaging are less healthy, and claims used on product packaging are confusing. Uniform guidance would avoid confusion on nutritional quality of many popular foods.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cliona Ni Mhurchu ◽  
Ryan Brown ◽  
Yannan Jiang ◽  
Helen Eyles ◽  
Elizabeth Dunford ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectiveTo compare the nutrient profile of packaged supermarket food products available in Australia and New Zealand. Eligibility to carry health claims and relationship between nutrient profile score and nutritional content were also evaluated.DesignNutritional composition data were collected in six major Australian and New Zealand supermarkets in 2012. Mean Food Standards Australia New Zealand Nutrient Profiling Scoring Criterion (NPSC) scores were calculated and the proportion of products eligible to display health claims was estimated. Regression analyses quantified associations between NPSC scores and energy density, saturated fat, sugar and sodium contents.ResultsNPSC scores were derived for 23 596 packaged food products (mean score 7·0, range −17 to 53). Scores were lower (better nutrient profile) for foods in Australia compared with New Zealand (mean 6·6 v. 7·8). Overall, 45 % of foods were eligible to carry health claims based on NPSC thresholds: 47 % in Australia and 41 % in New Zealand. However, less than one-third of dairy (32 %), meat and meat products (28 %) and bread and bakery products (27·5 %) were eligible to carry health claims. Conversely, >75 % of convenience food products were eligible to carry health claims (82·5 %). Each two-unit higher NPSC score was associated with higher energy density (78 kJ/100 g), saturated fat (0·95 g/100 g), total sugar (1·5 g/100 g) and sodium (66 mg/100 g; all P values<0·001).ConclusionsFewer than half of all packaged foods available in Australia and New Zealand in 2012 met nutritional criteria to carry health claims. The few healthy choices available in key staple food categories is a concern. Improvements in nutritional quality of foods through product reformulation have significant potential to improve population diets.


2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (12) ◽  
pp. 1388-1395 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Kaur ◽  
P Scarborough ◽  
S Hieke ◽  
A Kusar ◽  
I Pravst ◽  
...  

Abstract Backgroung/Objectives: Compares the nutritional quality of pre-packaged foods carrying health-related claims with foods that do not carry health-related claims. Subject/Methods: Cross-sectional survey of pre-packaged foods available in Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia and the United Kingdom in 2013. A total of 2034 foods were randomly sampled from three food store types (a supermarket, a neighbourhood store and a discounter). Nutritional information was taken from nutrient declarations present on food labels and assessed through a comparison of mean levels, regression analyses and the application of a nutrient profile model currently used to regulate health claims in Australia and New Zealand (Food Standards Australia New Zealand’s Nutrient Profiling Scoring Criterion, FSANZ NPSC). Results: Foods carrying health claims had, on average, lower levels, per 100 g, of the following nutrients, energy—29.3 kcal (P<0.05), protein—1.2 g (P<0.01), total sugars—3.1 g (P<0.05), saturated fat—2.4 g (P<0.001), and sodium—842 mg (P<0.001), and higher levels of fibre—0.8 g (P<0.001). A similar pattern was observed for foods carrying nutrition claims. Forty-three percent (confidence interval (CI) 41%, 45%) of foods passed the FSANZ NPSC, with foods carrying health claims more likely to pass (70%, CI 64%, 76%) than foods carrying nutrition claims (61%, CI 57%, 66%) or foods that did not carry either type of claim (36%, CI 34%, 38%). Conclusions: Foods carrying health-related claims have marginally better nutrition profiles than those that do not carry claims; these differences would be increased if the FSANZ NPSC was used to regulate health-related claims. It is unclear whether these relatively small differences have significant impacts on health.


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