The WHO South-East Asia Region Nutrient Profile Model Is Quite Appropriate for India: An Exploration of 31,516 Food Products

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Citation

Pandav, Chandra; Taillie, Lindsey Smith; Miles, Donna R.; Hollingsworth, Bridget A.; & Popkin, Barry M. (2021). The WHO South-East Asia Region Nutrient Profile Model Is Quite Appropriate for India: An Exploration of 31,516 Food Products. Nutrients, 13(8), 2799. PMCID: PMC8400900

Abstract

The rapid rise in prevalence of overweight/obesity, as well as high prevalence of type 2 diabetes and other nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases, has led the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to propose a front-of-package labeling (FOPL) regulation. An effective FOPL system applies a nutrient profile model that identifies foods high in sugar, sodium, and saturated fat that would receive a warning label for consumers to effectively discern between more and less healthy foods. Previous Nutrition Alchemy data collected by the food industry (n = 1306 products) estimated that approximately 96% of foods in India would have at least one warning label based on the FSSAI proposed FOPL. This near universal coverage of warning labels may be inaccurate and misleading. To address this, the current study compared two nutrient profile models, the WHO South-East Asia Region Organization (SEARO) and the Chilean Warning Octagon (CWO) Phase 3, applied to food products available in the Indian market from 2015-2020, collected through Mintel Global New Products Database (n = 10,501 products). Results suggest that 68% of foods and beverages would have at least one ' high-in' level warning label. This study highlights the need to include a more comprehensive sample of food products for assessing the value of warning labels.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu13082799

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2021

Journal Title

Nutrients

Author(s)

Pandav, Chandra
Taillie, Lindsey Smith
Miles, Donna R.
Hollingsworth, Bridget A.
Popkin, Barry M.

Article Type

Regular

PMCID

PMC8400900

Data Set/Study

Mintel Global New Products Database

Continent/Country

India

ORCiD

Popkin - 0000-0001-9495-9324
Taillie - 0000-0002-4555-2525
Miles - 0000-0001-9490-2096