A comparative evaluation of the use of a food composition database and nutrition declarations for nutrient profiling
Eržen N., Rayner M., Pravst I.
© 2015 National Agricultural and Food Centre (Slovakia). Nutrient profiling is used to classify foods according to their nutritional composition for various reasons, including the regulation of food labelling and advertising of foods to children. When applied to a representative sample of foods on the market, nutrient profiling has the potential to also be used to assess and monitor changes in the food market. In this study, we assessed whether data from a food composition database can be used to substitute or supplement data taken from food labels to conduct analyses using nutrient profile models. Study was performed using the Office of Communications (London, United Kingdom) nutrient profile model (Ofcom model), and Food Standards Australia New Zealand (Canberra, Australia) nutrient profile model (FSANZ model). When applying both nutrient profile models to a full sample of foods in various food categories using nutrition composition data from the nutrition declaration or from the food composition database, we observed a moderate to good level of agreement between both classifications. This can be further improved, for example, by excluding some food categories or by using the energy value as an indicator of a specific product’s proper match with one in the food composition database.