Comparison of different nutrient profiling schemes to a new reference method using dietary surveys

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Nutrition Policy
• Public Health

Background:

• EU regulation (2007) mandates nutrient profiles for food claims but lacks specific guidelines.
• Existing nutrient profiling schemes require evaluation against new regulatory needs.
• National dietary surveys identified "indicator foods" associated with healthy/unhealthy diets.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the performance of three nutrient profiling schemes against EU regulation requirements.
• To evaluate how "indicator foods" from five countries are classified by these schemes.
• To determine the effectiveness of existing schemes in identifying foods suitable for health claims.

Main Methods:

• Classified "indicator foods" using the UK FSA, Dutch Tripartite, and US FDA nutrient profiling models.
• Assessed scheme performance using sensitivity and specificity ratios.
• Analyzed the concordance between "indicator food" classification and scheme outputs.

Main Results:

• All three tested nutrient profiling schemes demonstrated relatively good sensitivity and specificity.
• Minimal performance differences were observed between the UK FSA, Dutch Tripartite, and US FDA models.
• A significant negative correlation between sensitivity and specificity was noted across the schemes.

Conclusions:

• Existing nutrient profiling schemes show promise for meeting EU regulation needs.
• The "indicator foods" approach demonstrated good concordance but requires further refinement to become a "gold standard".
• Further development is necessary to optimize nutrient profiling for accurate food claim regulation.