March 2015

Monitoring Changes in the Nutritional Content of Ready-To-Eat Grain Based Dessert Products Manufactured and Purchased between 2005 and 2012

America’s continuing struggle with obesity and its comorbid conditions has resulted in an increased movement to develop healthier food options.  Mathias, Wen Ng, and Popkin (2015) sought to determine whether or not stated intent by food manufacturers had actually resulted in product changes during a seven-year period from 2005 to 2012. The researchers were also interested in determining whether or not any changes had been embraced by consumers during this same time period. The authors chose to investigate grain-based dessert (GBD) products due to prior research indicating that such products are the single largest source of solid fats and the second largest source of added sugars in the American diet.  Examples of such products included cakes, cookies, pies, pastries, sweet strudels, doughnuts, granola/yogurt bars, and graham crackers. To allow for consistency, only products sold as ready-to-eat (RTE) were included for analysis.

The investigators used nutrition facts panel (NFP) information from commercially available RTE GBD products to allow for detailed examination of the nutritional content of such foods. This study used two levels of analysis: Product level analysis to determine whether or not manufactured RTE GBD products had changed in nutrient formulation (distributions of energy, saturated fat and/or sugar density) over the seven-year period; and purchase level analysis to determine whether or not Americans purchased fewer RTE GBD products and/or if they purchased options with fewer calories, less saturated fat and/or less added sugar.

Just fewer than 135,000 households (n=134,128) from 76 different markets were used for data collection. Each household was provided with a Universal Product Code (UPC) scanner and asked to scan all of their grocery purchases; each household provided an average of 42 months (3 ½ years) of data. The UPC codes were then linked with its associated NFP information. The NFP information was used for analysis to determine whether or not the nutritive content of RTE GBD products had changed over time and/or whether or not people were purchasing healthier RTE GBD options if they were available. 

For product-level analysis, the investigators used linear regression models to identify any changes in calorie, saturated fat, and/or sugar density in RTE GBD manufactured during the specified time period. For purchase level analysis, random effects models (controlling for certain variables) were used to identify whether or not there were significant changes in total purchasing of RTE GBD products (measured in grams) and also whether or not the average calories, saturated fat, and/or sugar density of purchased RTE GBD products had changed over the same time period (2005-2012). Statistical significance for all tests was set at p<.05.

Product-level analysis indicated that there were no significant changes in average energy or sugar density of RTE GBD products manufactured during the seven-year time period. However, average saturated fat density increased significantly from 6.5±0.2 (g/100g) in 2005 to 7.3± 0.2 (preexisting RTE GBD, available before 2012) and 7.9±0.2 (newly introduced RTE GBD, introduced in 2012). The investigators noted that average saturated fat density was higher in in all years that followed 2005, with the exception of 2007.

Purchase-level analysis indicated that average energy density (kcal/100g) of purchased RTE GBD products significantly decreased from 433±0.2 to 422±0.2 between 2005 and 2012. The saturated fat density of purchased RTE GBD increased significantly from 6.3±0.01 to 6.6±0.01 (g/100g) from 2005 to 2012, while the sugar density significantly decreased from 32.4±0.04 to 31.3±0.02 (g/100g). Furthermore, households significantly decreased their purchasing of RTE GBD products by 24.1%±0.4% over the seven-year period. In 2005, RTE GBD purchases were 18.6 g/person/d, while in 2012 RTE GBD purchases were 15.9g/person/d. The authors also broke down this analysis by type of household and found that households without children decreased their purchasing of RTE GBD by 21%±1%, while households with children aged 2 to 11 decreased purchasing by 28%±2%, and households with children aged 12 to 18 decreased purchasing by 36%±1%.

The results of this study indicated that manufactured RTE GBD products did not significantly differ in energy or sugar density between the years of 2005 and 2012, while saturated fat density increased. However, the results of this study also indicated that consumers chose to purchase RTE GBD with lower energy and sugar densities (despite being higher in saturated fat density). A significant decrease in the purchasing of RTE GBD products was also observed in the seven-year time period.

The authors discussed that further measures should be taken to ensure that manufacturers are making an effort to increase the overall healthfulness of their RTE GBD. Furthermore, the authors pointed out that while it is encouraging that consumers chose products with less energy and sugar densities, the scale of the decrease (<4%) indicates that more work must be done to influence consumers to choose healthier alternatives. The investigators concluded by pointing out that these results highlight an opportunity for manufacturers and public health officials to work together to develop more strategies to continue to shift consumer purchases towards healthier products.

Article:

Mathias, K., Wen Ng, S., & Popkin, B. (2015). Monitoring Changes in the

Nutritional Content of Ready-To-Eat Grain-Based Dessert Products Manufactured and Purchased between 2005 and 2012. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 115(3), 360-368. DOI:   http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2014.10.018

Link: http://www.andjrnl.org/article/S2212-2672(14)01587-1/abstract

Supplemental Article #1:

 Slining, M., Ng, S., & Popkin, B. (2013). Food Companies' Calorie- Reduction Pledges to Improve U.S. Diet. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 44(2), 174-184. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2012.09.064

Link:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3583299/

Supplemental article #2

Grocery Manufacturers Association. (2014). GMA Health and Wellness Survey. Retrieved March 1, 2015.

http://www.gmaonline.org/issues-policy/health-nutrition/providing-innovative-and-healthy-choices/product-reformulation/

Supplemental Article #3:

Siri-Tarino, P., Sun, Q., Hu, F., & Krauss, R. (2010). Meta-analysis Of Prospective Cohort Studies Evaluating The Association Of Saturated Fat With Cardiovascular Disease. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 91(3), 535-546. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.27725.

Link: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2010/01/13/ajcn.2009.27725.abstract

Supplemental Article #4:

Chowdhury, R., Warnakula, S., Kunutsar, S., Crowe, F., Ward, H., Johnson, L…, & Di Angelantonio, E. (2014). Association of Dietary, Circulating, and Supplement Fatty Acids With Coronary Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Annals of Internal Medicine, 160(6), 398-406.

Link: http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1846638