The George Institute for Global Health, 308, Third Floor, Elegance Tower, Plot No. 8, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi, Delhi, 110025, India.
Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
BMC Public Health. 2024 Aug 14;24(1):2212. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-19624-1.
Increased consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) which have additives such as artificial colours, flavours and are usually high in salt, sugar, fats and specific preservatives, are associated with diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In India, there are no standard criteria for identifying UPFs using a classification system based on extent and purpose of industrial processing. Scientific literature on dietary intake of foods among Indian consumers classifies foods as unhealthy based on presence of excessive amounts of specific nutrients which makes it difficult to distinguish UPFs from other commercially available processed foods.
A literature review followed by an online grocery retailer scan for food label reading was conducted to map the types of UPFs in Indian food market and scrutinize their ingredient list for the presence of ultra-processed ingredients. All UPFs identified were randomly listed and then grouped into categories, followed by saliency analysis to understand preferred UPFs by consumers. Indian UPF categories were then finalized to inform a UPF screener.
A lack of application of a uniform definition for UPFs in India was observed; hence descriptors such as junk-foods, fast-foods, ready-to-eat foods, instant-foods, processed-foods, packaged-foods, high-fat-sugar-and-salt foods were used for denoting UPFs. After initial scanning of such foods reported in literature based on standard definition of UPFs, an online grocery retailer scan of food labels for 375 brands (atleast 3 brands for each food item) confirmed 81 food items as UPFs. A range of packaged traditional recipes were also found to have UPF ingredients. Twenty three categories of UPFs were then developed and subjected to saliency analysis. Breads, chips and sugar-sweetened beverages (e.g. sodas and cold-drinks) were the most preferred UPFs while frozen ready-to-eat/cook foods (e.g. chicken nuggets and frozen kebabs) were least preferred.
India needs to systematically apply a food classification system and define Indian food categories based on the level of industrial processing. Mapping of UPFs is the first step towards development of a quick screener that would generate UPF consumption data to inform clear policy guidelines and regulations around UPFs and address their impact on NCDs.
超加工食品（UPFs）的消费增加，这些食品含有添加剂，如人工色素、香料，通常含有高盐、高糖、高脂肪和特定防腐剂，与饮食相关的非传染性疾病（NCDs）有关。在印度，没有使用基于工业加工程度和目的的分类系统来识别 UPFs 的标准标准。关于印度消费者饮食中食物摄入量的科学文献根据特定营养素的过量含量将食物归类为不健康食品，这使得很难将 UPFs 与其他市售加工食品区分开来。
进行文献综述，然后对在线杂货店零售商进行食品标签扫描，以绘制印度食品市场中 UPFs 的类型，并仔细检查其成分清单中是否存在超加工成分。所有识别出的 UPFs 均被随机列出，然后分为类别，然后进行显著性分析以了解消费者偏爱的 UPFs。然后对印度 UPF 类别进行最终确定，以告知 UPF 筛选器。
观察到印度缺乏对 UPFs 的统一定义的应用；因此，使用了垃圾食品、快餐、即食食品、速食食品、加工食品、包装食品、高脂肪、高糖和高盐食品等描述符来表示 UPFs。根据 UPF 的标准定义对文献中报告的此类食品进行初步扫描后，对 375 个品牌（每种食品至少 3 个品牌）的在线杂货店食品标签进行扫描，确认 81 种食品为 UPFs。还发现一系列包装传统食谱都含有 UPF 成分。然后开发了 23 类 UPF 并进行了显著性分析。面包、薯片和含糖饮料（如苏打水和冷饮）是最受欢迎的 UPF，而冷冻即食/烹饪食品（如鸡块和冷冻烤肉串）则最不受欢迎。
印度需要系统地应用食品分类系统，并根据工业加工水平定义印度食品类别。对 UPFs 的映射是开发快速筛选器的第一步，该筛选器将生成 UPF 消费数据，为 UPFs 提供明确的政策指导方针和法规，并解决它们对 NCDs 的影响。
