Evaluating the alignment of generic recipes with Canada's Food Guide 2019 using the Canadian Food Scoring System for...

Canada's Food Guide (CFG) was revised in 2019 to emphasize food quality through a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and plant-based proteins. Although the Canadian Food Scoring System (CFSS) was developed to assess the alignment of individual foods and beverages with CFG 2019, no validated tool exists to evaluate multi-ingredient recipes. In this study, we modified the CFSS to create the CFSS for recipes (CFSSr), a nutrient profiling model that classifies recipes into five alignment categories ("very poor" to "excellent") based on food group composition and nutrient-of-concern thresholds from Canadian front-of-package labelling regulations. The CFSSr was applied to 93 021 unique generic recipes from the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey-Nutrition. The majority (64%) of recipes were rated "poor" or "very poor" according to CFG 2019, with dessert and dessert topping recipes scoring lowest and nuts and seeds and snack recipes scoring highest. A sub-analysis of home-prepared recipes (n = 21 774) showed a similar pattern, with 57.6% rated "poor" or "very poor". Home-prepared recipes showed statistically significantly better alignment than otherwise-prepared recipes (median CFSSr: 45.0 vs. 43.8, p < 0.001), though the effect size was negligible, suggesting that preparation location alone does not ensure dietary quality but rather the cooking method (e.g., frying or added ingredients like salt and fats during preparation). These findings underscore a persistent gap between the nutritional quality of common recipes and CFG recommendations, highlighting the need for targeted policies, food literacy initiatives, and tools to promote healthier recipe choices and preparation methods.