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Nutritional quality of new food products released into the Australian retail food market in 2015 – is the food industry part of the solution?

BACKGROUND: Food manufacturers have made public statements and voluntary commitments, such as the Healthier Australia Commitment (HAC), to improve the nutritional quality of foods. However, limited information about the nutritional quality or healthfulness of new products makes it difficult to deter...

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Autores principales: Spiteri, Sheree A., Olstad, Dana Lee, Woods, Julie L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5804078/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29415698
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5127-0
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author Spiteri, Sheree A.
Olstad, Dana Lee
Woods, Julie L.
author_facet Spiteri, Sheree A.
Olstad, Dana Lee
Woods, Julie L.
author_sort Spiteri, Sheree A.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Food manufacturers have made public statements and voluntary commitments, such as the Healthier Australia Commitment (HAC), to improve the nutritional quality of foods. However, limited information about the nutritional quality or healthfulness of new products makes it difficult to determine if manufacturers are doing this. The purpose of this study was to assess the healthfulness of new food products released into the Australian retail market in 2015, and whether those companies who were HAC members released healthier food options compared to non-HAC members. METHODS: This cross-sectional study assessed the healthfulness of all new retail food products launched in Australia in 2015 as indexed in Mintel’s Global New Products Database. Healthfulness was assessed using three classification schemes: Healthy Choices Framework Victoria, Australian Dietary Guidelines and NOVA Food Classification System. Descriptive statistics and chi-squared tests described and compared the number and proportions of new foods falling within each of the food classification schemes’ categories for companies that were and were not HAC members. RESULTS: In 2015, 4143 new food products were launched into the Australian market. The majority of new products were classified in each schemes’ least healthy category (i.e. red, discretionary and ultra-processed). Fruits and vegetables represented just 3% of new products. HAC members launched a significantly greater proportion of foods classified as red (59% vs 51% for members and non-members, respectively) discretionary (79% vs 61%), and ultra-processed (94% vs 81%), and significantly fewer were classified as green (8% vs 15%), core foods (18% vs 36%) and minimally processed (0% vs 6%) (all p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study found that the majority of new products released into the Australian retail food market in 2015 were classified in each of three schemes’ least healthy categories. A greater proportion of new products launched by companies that publicly committed to improve the nutritional quality of their products were unhealthy, and a lower proportion were healthy, compared with new products launched by companies that did not so commit. Greater monitoring of industry progress in improving the healthfulness of the food supply may be warranted, with public accountability if the necessary changes are not seen.
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spelling pubmed-58040782018-02-14 Nutritional quality of new food products released into the Australian retail food market in 2015 – is the food industry part of the solution? Spiteri, Sheree A. Olstad, Dana Lee Woods, Julie L. BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Food manufacturers have made public statements and voluntary commitments, such as the Healthier Australia Commitment (HAC), to improve the nutritional quality of foods. However, limited information about the nutritional quality or healthfulness of new products makes it difficult to determine if manufacturers are doing this. The purpose of this study was to assess the healthfulness of new food products released into the Australian retail market in 2015, and whether those companies who were HAC members released healthier food options compared to non-HAC members. METHODS: This cross-sectional study assessed the healthfulness of all new retail food products launched in Australia in 2015 as indexed in Mintel’s Global New Products Database. Healthfulness was assessed using three classification schemes: Healthy Choices Framework Victoria, Australian Dietary Guidelines and NOVA Food Classification System. Descriptive statistics and chi-squared tests described and compared the number and proportions of new foods falling within each of the food classification schemes’ categories for companies that were and were not HAC members. RESULTS: In 2015, 4143 new food products were launched into the Australian market. The majority of new products were classified in each schemes’ least healthy category (i.e. red, discretionary and ultra-processed). Fruits and vegetables represented just 3% of new products. HAC members launched a significantly greater proportion of foods classified as red (59% vs 51% for members and non-members, respectively) discretionary (79% vs 61%), and ultra-processed (94% vs 81%), and significantly fewer were classified as green (8% vs 15%), core foods (18% vs 36%) and minimally processed (0% vs 6%) (all p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study found that the majority of new products released into the Australian retail food market in 2015 were classified in each of three schemes’ least healthy categories. A greater proportion of new products launched by companies that publicly committed to improve the nutritional quality of their products were unhealthy, and a lower proportion were healthy, compared with new products launched by companies that did not so commit. Greater monitoring of industry progress in improving the healthfulness of the food supply may be warranted, with public accountability if the necessary changes are not seen. BioMed Central 2018-02-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5804078/ /pubmed/29415698 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5127-0 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Spiteri, Sheree A.
Olstad, Dana Lee
Woods, Julie L.
Nutritional quality of new food products released into the Australian retail food market in 2015 – is the food industry part of the solution?
title Nutritional quality of new food products released into the Australian retail food market in 2015 – is the food industry part of the solution?
title_full Nutritional quality of new food products released into the Australian retail food market in 2015 – is the food industry part of the solution?
title_fullStr Nutritional quality of new food products released into the Australian retail food market in 2015 – is the food industry part of the solution?
title_full_unstemmed Nutritional quality of new food products released into the Australian retail food market in 2015 – is the food industry part of the solution?
title_short Nutritional quality of new food products released into the Australian retail food market in 2015 – is the food industry part of the solution?
title_sort nutritional quality of new food products released into the australian retail food market in 2015 – is the food industry part of the solution?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5804078/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29415698
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5127-0
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