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Sweeteners in the US food supply and the role of fruit juice concentrates (FJC)
Author(s) -
Ng Shu Wen,
Slining Meghan M,
Popkin Barry M
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.256.3
Subject(s) - sugar , food science , artificial sweetener , fruit juice , added sugar , chemistry , ingredient , jams , dietary sucrose
Added sugars measurements defined by the USDA and estimated in MPED exclude fruit juice concentrate (FJC) as a sweetener, and have not been created since NHANES 2003/04. This study utilizes full ingredient list and nutrition facts panel (NFP) data from Gladson Nutrition Database, and nationally representative food purchases from Nielsen Homescan 2005–2009. Of the 85,452 uniquely formulated foods purchased between 2005–2009 representing >400,000 items in the marketplace, 75% contain sweeteners (73.3% nutritive, 1.3% non‐nutritive). 7% contain FJC (not reconstituted) as a sweetener, and 2% contain reconstituted fruit juice. FJC as a sweetener is used in 13% of granola or energy bars, 12% of baby food, 17% of salad dressings and dips, 18% of sweets, 11% of ready‐to‐eat cereals, 16% of yogurts, 30% caloric sugar‐ and 16% of diet‐sweetened beverages. Among uniquely formulated products, those containing FJC as the only sweetener have a mean of 21g total sugar/100g, which is not statistically different from the 23g total sugar in products sweetened only by other nutritive sweeteners. However, when total sugar/100g is weighted by volume purchased, we found that foods purchased in 2007–2008 containing FJC as the only sweetener had significantly higher total sugars than those sweetened by other nutritive sweeteners only (20.1–20.3g vs. 15.9–16.1g, p >0.05). Our study poses a challenge toward monitoring what is consumed in the US by discussing the need to improve added sugar measures and require added sugars in NFP labeling regulations. Funding for this research is from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant 68793) and the National Institutes of Health (R01 HL104580).