Breakfast Cereals Intended for Children: Opportunities for Reformulation and Potential Impact on Nutrient Intake

Foods

Duarte Torres¹  Ricardo Assunção²  Isabel Castanheira²  Mariana Santos²  Filipa Matias²  Ana Isabel Rito²  Isabel Loureiro³ 

[1] Epidemiology Research Unit, Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Rua Das Taipas 135, 4050-091 Porto, Portugal;Food and Nutrition Department, National Health Institute Dr Ricardo Jorge, Av Padre Cruz, 1649-016 Lisboa, Portugal;NOVA National School of Public Health, Public Health Research Center (CISP), Comprehensive Health Research Center, NOVA University of Lisbon, Avenida Padre Cruz, 1600-560 Lisboa, Portugal;

关键词: breakfast cereals;    nutrient profile;    reformulation;    food selection;    children;    health impact;   

DOI  :  10.3390/foods10081772

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Ready-to-eat cereals (RTECs) have become a popular breakfast option claiming to provide important nutrients to children’s diets, despite being a source of excess sugar and, therefore, a health concern. Thus, food reformulation constitutes an important public health strategy that could benefit from inputs provided by nutrient profiling. This study aimed to assess the adequacy of the RTECs for children available in Portuguese supermarkets, applying three nutrient profile models (NPMs)—the nutrient profile model of the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe (WHO-EURO), the profile of the private-sector EU Pledge (EU-Pledge), and the national model developed by the Directorate-General of Health (NPM-PT)—in order to explore the potential for reformulation of the RTECs identified as not adequate and evaluate the impact of RTECs’ reformulation on the nutritional quality of Portuguese children’s diets. In total, 78 RTECs intended for children were assessed and two scenarios—current (not considering reformulation) and alternative (considering reformulation to accomplish the nutrient profile requirements)—were considered to assess the impact of reformulation on nutritional quality. Across all RTECs, only 5.1% could be promoted to children according to the considered NPMs. The most common nutrients requiring reformulation were sugar, saturated fatty acids (SFA), salt, and dietary fiber. The scenarios of reformulation considered could reduce the RTECs average content of total sugars, SFA, and salt by 43%, 8.7%, and 1.1%, respectively, and dietary fiber intake could be increased by 34%. Thus, these results support policies to implement reformulation strategies for developing healthier food products to be promoted to children.

【 授权许可】

Unknown