Nutrient profiling schemes: overview and comparative analysis

Nutrient profiling is a discipline aimed at classifying foods based on their nutritional composition. So far, several profiling schemes have been proposed for varied purposes world-wide. Primary aim to inventory the main profiling schemes that have been developed so far (both applied and not) and to summarise their main aspects. Secondary aim to critically review a selection of them, to test their “performance” and to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. Scientific and popular search engines were used for identifying profiling schemes. Schemes were described concisely by providing details on four main “Building Blocks” or factors: (1) Food category declination: category-wise or “across the board”; (2) Reference amount: 100 g, 100 kcal; serving; (3) Cut-off use: thresholds or scores; (4) Nutrients Selection: balance between positive and negative nutrients and number of them. The “performance” analysis was done by testing how the selected schemes classify a sample of food. Profiling schemes display considerable variation based on the underlying approach, format and content. Moreover, the rationale of the schemes largely varies and seems to be inspired by either nutrient recommendations or regulations figures. When tested for “performance”, the five selected schemes classify in the same way foods having either a very “positive” or a very “negative” nutrient profile, whereas they give inconsistent results for food products with intermediate characteristics. Strengths and weaknesses analysis shows the difficulty of finding schemes combining qualities such as simplicity, scientific relevance, ability to cope with changes in nutrient recommendations. Current proposed profiling schemes exhibit a wide range of differences both in terms of approaches and “performance”. Nutrition scientists have now the challenge to develop the “ideal scheme” that, in our view, will have to be strict enough to ensure consumer protection but also flexible enough to encourage food industry innovation and to promote a “healthy” competitive market.

[1]  D. Scheidt,et al.  Composite index for aggregating nutrient density using food labels: ratio of recommended to restricted food components. , 2004, Journal of nutrition education and behavior.

[2]  Alison Black,et al.  Just read the label : understanding nutrition information in numeric, verbal and graphic formats , 1992 .

[3]  A. Drewnowski,et al.  A nutrient density standard for vegetables and fruits: nutrients per calorie and nutrients per unit cost. , 2005, Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

[4]  V. Azaïs-Braesco,et al.  A multipurpose tool to evaluate the nutritional quality of individual foods: Nutrimap® , 2007, Public Health Nutrition.

[5]  J. Weststrate,et al.  A method to improve the nutritional quality of foods and beverages based on dietary recommendations , 2007, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

[6]  Peter Scarborough,et al.  The origin of Guideline Daily Amounts and the Food Standards Agency's guidance on what counts as ‘a lot’ and ‘a little’ , 2004, Public Health Nutrition.

[7]  E. Trolle,et al.  Guidelines and conditions for use of health claims in Denmark , 2001 .

[8]  M. Rayner,et al.  Just read the label , 1992 .

[9]  A. Drewnowski Concept of a nutritious food: toward a nutrient density score. , 2005, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[10]  V. Azaïs-Braesco,et al.  The FoodProfiler, a nutrient profiling system to restrict the use of nutrition and health claims to foods with desirable nutrient profiles , 2007 .