Food Policy Division, The George Institute for Global Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney 2042, Australia.
Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney 2006, Australia.
Nutrients. 2017 Oct 9;9(10):1103. doi: 10.3390/nu9101103.
Availability of less-healthy packaged food and beverage products has been implicated as an important driver of obesity and diet-related disease. An increasing number of packaged foods and beverages are sold in India. Our objective was to evaluate the healthiness of packaged foods sold by India's largest manufacturers. Healthiness was assessed using the Australian Health Star Rating (HSR) system and the World Health Organization's European Regional Office (WHO Euro) Nutrient Profile Model. Sales-value-weighted mean healthiness and the proportions of "healthy" products (using a validated HSR cut-off of ≥3.5, and products meeting WHO Euro criteria as healthy enough to market to children) were calculated overall, by company and by food category. Nutrient information for 943 products sold by the 11 largest Indian manufacturers was obtained from nutrient labels, company websites or directly from the manufacturer. Healthiness was low overall (mean HSR 1.8 out of 5.0 stars) with a low proportion defined as "healthy" by both HSR (17%) and also by WHO Euro criteria (8%). There were marked differences in the healthiness of similar products within food categories. Substantial variation between companies (minimum sales-value-weighted mean HSR 0.5 for Company G, versus maximum HSR 3.0 for Company F) was a result of differences in the types of products sold and the nutritional composition of individual products. There are clear opportunities for India's largest food companies to improve both the nutritional quality of individual products and to improve their product mix to include a greater proportion of healthy products.
在印度,越来越多的包装食品和饮料正在出售。我们的目的是评估印度最大制造商销售的包装食品的健康程度。健康程度使用澳大利亚健康星级评级(HSR)系统和世界卫生组织欧洲区域办事处(WHO 欧洲)营养成分模型进行评估。根据 HSR 得分≥3.5 的验证标准和符合 WHO 欧洲标准的产品(足够健康可以向儿童推销),计算了销售价值加权平均健康程度以及“健康”产品的比例(总体、按公司和按食品类别)。从 11 家最大的印度制造商销售的 943 种产品中获取了营养信息,这些信息来自营养标签、公司网站或直接从制造商处获得。总体而言,健康程度较低(平均 HSR 得分为 5 分中的 1.8 分),按照 HSR(17%)和 WHO 欧洲标准(8%),“健康”产品的比例较低。在类似的食品类别中,产品的健康程度存在明显差异。公司之间存在明显差异(G 公司的最低销售价值加权平均 HSR 为 0.5,而 F 公司的最高 HSR 为 3.0),这是由于销售产品的类型和个别产品的营养成分不同所致。印度最大的食品公司显然有机会提高单个产品的营养质量,并改善其产品组合,包括增加健康产品的比例。