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Nutritional quality of packaged foods targeted at children in Brazil: which ones should be eligible to bear nutrient claims?

International Journal of Obesity volume 41, pages 71–75 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objectives:

This study aimed to assess the nutritional quality of food products marketed at children, with and without nutrient claims, using two different approaches.

Methods:

Analyses were performed based on a data set with food composition and labelling data from every packaged food marketed at children sold in a major Brazilian supermarket (n=535). Foods were classified as ‘healthier’ and ‘less healthy’ according to the UK/Ofcom nutrient profile model and to the NOVA classification based on the level of food processing. Pearson's χ2 test was used to compare proportions between models. Agreement was assessed using Cohen’s κ-statistic (P<0.05).

Results:

The NOVA model was stricter than the UK/Ofcom model, classifying more products as ‘less healthy’ (91.4%) compared with the nutrient profile-based model (75.0%; P<0.001). Agreement between models was 79.4% (k=0.30), because 72.9% (n=390) of products were categorised as ‘less healthy’ by both models, and 6.5% (n=35) as ‘healthier’. Half of the food products marketed at children from the database (270; 50.5%) bore nutrient claims. From these products with nutrient claims, 95.9% (92.8–98.0) were classified as ‘less healthy’ by the NOVA model, whereas this percentage was 74.1% (68.4–79.2) according to the UK/Ofcom model (P<0.05).

Conclusions:

The high number of foods with low nutritional quality being marketed at children via product packaging and nutrient claims should be of concern to policy makers wanting to improve children’s diets and to tackle childhood obesity. The implementation of nutritional quality criteria to ensure that foods targeted at children should be eligible to bear nutrient claims on their labels could avoid a situation where claims mask the overall nutritional status of a food.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of the Ministry of Science and Technology in Brazil—CNPq for funding the wider project ‘Nutrition labelling in Brazilian foods: thematic analysis of the use by the consumer and influence the choices’ (grant number 440040/2014-0) and for the international scholarships conceded to VMR and GMRF. We also thank the Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education in Brazil—CAPES for the financial support in the form of scholarships to VMR, ACF and RCO.

Author contributions

VMR was responsible for planning the research, collecting, analysing and interpreting the data, and for drafting the first version of the manuscript. ACF and RCO contributed towards data collection, analysis and interpretation, and revision of the manuscript. RPCP and MR contributed to data analysis, interpretation of results and revision of the manuscript. GMRF had overall responsibility for the study, research coordination, supervision of data collection and analysis and revision of the final manuscript. All of the authors approved this version for publication and accepted the conditions established by International Journal of Obesity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nutrition Graduate Programme (Programa de Pós-Graduação em Nutrição), Nutrition in Foodservice Research Centre (NUPPRE), Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Santa Catarina, Brazil

    V M Rodrigues, A C Fernandes, R C de Oliveira, R P C Proença & G M R Fiates

  2. Nuffield Department of Population Health, British Heart Foundation Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    V M Rodrigues & M Rayner

Authors
  1. V M Rodrigues
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  2. M Rayner
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  4. R C de Oliveira
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  5. R P C Proença
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  6. G M R Fiates
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Correspondence to G M R Fiates.

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Rodrigues, V., Rayner, M., Fernandes, A. et al. Nutritional quality of packaged foods targeted at children in Brazil: which ones should be eligible to bear nutrient claims?. Int J Obes 41, 71–75 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2016.167

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