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OBJECTIVE: Nutrient profiling can be defined as the 'the science of categorising foods according to their nutritional composition'. The purpose of the present paper is to describe a systematic and logical approach to nutrient profiling. DESIGN: A seven-stage decision-making process is proposed and, as an illustration of how the approach might operate in practice, the development of a nutrient profiling model for the purpose of highlighting breakfast cereals that are 'high in fat, sugar or salt' is described. RESULTS: The nutrient profile model developed for this paper calculates scores for foods using a simple equation. It enables breakfast cereals to be compared with each other and with other foods eaten at breakfast. CONCLUSION: Nutrient profiling is not new, but hitherto most nutrient profiling models have been developed in an unsystematic and illogical fashion. Different nutrient profiling models are needed for different purposes but a key requirement should be that they are developed using a systematic, transparent and logical process. This paper provides an example of such a process; approaches to validating nutrient profiling models are described elsewhere.

Original publication

DOI

10.1017/S1368980007223870

Type

Journal article

Journal

Public Health Nutr

Publication Date

04/2007

Volume

10

Pages

330 - 336

Keywords

Databases, Factual, Decision Making, Edible Grain, Food, Food Analysis, Humans, Nutritive Value