A Novel Nutrient Profiling Score To Drive Food Reformulation

Background Nutrient profiling (NP) has been mainly used for regulation or food labeling purposes; few systems have been proposed to track food reformulation across a wide range of manufactured foods Objective To present a category‐specific NP model, the NF score, which aim is to facilitate the tracking of nutritional characteristics of foods; and to show examples of NF score implementation Methods The NF score is calculated as an unweighted average of common (energy, added sugars, fructose, sodium, and total, saturated, and trans fats) and category‐specific (e.g. calcium for dairy products, fiber for breads) nutrient ratios (R) calculated per serving: NF score=Average R. For nutrients to limit, R=content/criteria; for nutrients to encourage R=criteria/content. The criteria are category‐specific and linked to public health recommendations, target population (children or adults), and to the role of the food category in the diet. If the food content for one nutrient does not reach the criteria (i.e. R>1), then all Rs蠄1 are set to 1, to ensure that a nutritional weakness cannot be compensated for. Any score above 2 is capped at 2. The final NF score, ranging from 0 to 2, is reversed for a more intuitive reading; any score below 1 indicates that the food has at least one nutritional weakness. Results The NF score was used to assess the evolution of nutritional characteristics of reformulated foods. For all the examples but one, there was an improvement of the NF score ( Figure ). Improvements for the Cereal bar, Sugar candies, and Pepperoni pizza were also linked to a reduced serving size.Conclusions The NF score allows for a sensitive tracking of food reformulation. Testing the NF score in standard food composition databases should highlight how effective the NF score could be in improving the food environment.