Industrially processed v. home-prepared dishes: what economic benefit for the consumer?

OBJECTIVE: To cope with the pressure of modern life, consumer demand for convenience foods has increased in the last decades. The current study set out to compare the costs of buying industrially processed dishes and of preparing them at home. DESIGN: Direct purchase costs of industrially processed dishes frequently consumed in France (n 19) and of the ingredients needed for their home-prepared counterparts (n 86) were collected from four major food retailers' websites in Montpellier, France. Mean prices and energy density were calculated for four portions. Costs related to energy used by cooking appliances and time spent preparing dishes were further estimated. SETTING: Montpellier, France. PARTICIPANTS: Not applicable. RESULTS: Based on the costs of ingredients and energy used for cooking, dishes prepared at home cost less (-0·60 € per four portions, P < 0.001) than industrially processed dishes, but when the cost of time was taken into account, the industrially processed dishes were much cheaper (-5·34 € per four portions, P < 0.001) than their home-prepared counterparts. There was no difference in energy density between industrially processed and home-prepared dishes. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that industrially processed dishes are more profitable to consumers when the cost of time for preparing dishes at home is valued. Given the ever greater demands of everyday life, more account should be taken of the additional cost to consumers of the time they spend preparing meals at home.

Relationships Between Gut Microbiota, Metabolome, Body Weight, and Glucose Homeostasis of Obese Dogs Fed with Diets Differing in Prebiotic and Protein Content.

Obesity is a major issue in pets and nutritional strategies need to be developed, like promoting greater protein and fiber intake. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary protein levels and prebiotic supplementation on the glucose metabolism and relationships between the gut, microbiota, metabolome, and phenotype of obese dogs. Six obese Beagle dogs received a diet containing 25.6% or 36.9% crude protein, with or without 1% short-chain fructo-oligosaccharide (scFOS) or oligofructose (OF), in a Latin-square study design. Fecal and blood samples were collected for metabolite analysis, untargeted metabolomics, and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. A multi-block analysis was performed to build a correlation network to identify relationships between fecal microbiota, metabolome, and phenotypic variables. Diets did not affect energy homeostasis, but scFOS supplementation modulated fecal microbiota composition and induced significant changes of the fecal metabolome. Bile acids and several amino acids were related to glucose homeostasis while specific bacteria gathered in metavariables had a high number of links with phenotypic and metabolomic parameters. It also suggested that fecal aminoadipate and hippurate act as potential markers of glucose homeostasis. This preliminary study provides new insights into the relationships between the gut microbiota, the metabolome, and several phenotypic markers involved in obesity and associated metabolic dysfunctions.

Modeled industry-wide food and beverage reformulations reduce the gap between current and nutritionally adequate dietary intakes among French adults.

PURPOSE: The objective was to assess the capacity of food reformulations to reduce the required dietary changes to reach overall nutritional adequacy in the French adult population. METHODS: Reformulation standards, defined using the Nestlé Nutritional Profiling System (NNPS), were applied to the French food composition database (CIQUAL-2013), classifying foods into "PASS" or "FAIL". Baseline nutritional intakes were estimated for 1838 adults of the INCA2 French national survey according to three scenarios based on: (1) the original food composition database (CURRENT), (2) a "reformulated" database in which the nutrient composition of FAIL products was adjusted to the NNPS standards (REFORMULATION), and (3) a "substituted" database in FAIL products were replaced by the most nutritionally similar PASS products from the same NNPS-category (SUBSTITUTION). For each scenario, starting from each baseline diet, a new optimized diet was modeled to fulfill a complete set of nutrient recommendations while remaining closest to the respective baseline diet. To quantify the dietary changes needed to reach nutritional adequacy in the optimized diets, the total dietary deviation (TDD) was calculated as the sum in quantities (grams) of the absolute difference between observed and optimized amount of repertoire foods (i.e., foods already consumed) plus the amount of non-repertoire foods (i.e., new foods added). RESULTS: TDD was significantly lower in the REFORMULATION and the SUBSTITUTION scenarios compared to CURRENT (1269 g/day, 1191 g/day and 1494 g/day, respectively). This was explained by smaller shifts among repertoire foods and less additions of non-repertoire foods. CONCLUSIONS: Nutritional reformulation of the food supply may reduce the dietary changes required to achieve nutritionally adequate diets, but would not suffice to reach the complete set of nutrient recommendations.

Food- and diet-based validations of a Nestlé Nutrient Profiling System for reformulation in two nationally representative surveys.

The Nestlé Nutritional Profiling System (NNPS) has been developed to guide food and beverage reformulation. The WHO published guidelines to develop and validate nutrient profiling systems. The objective was to conduct validation tests of the NNPS following principles of the WHO guidelines. French (Individual and National Survey on food Consumption 2006-2007) and the USA (National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 2011-2012) nationally representative dietary surveys were used. NNPS outcomes (PASS, FAIL, out-of-scope) of foods were compared with the validated UK Ofcom nutrient profiling system outcomes. Contributions of NNPS outcomes to energy intakes were compared between diets nutritional quality classes defined by two methods: based on a food-based quality indicator (Programme National Nutrition Santé Guideline Score in France, Healthy Eating Index 2010 in the USA) or on a combination of three nutrient-based indicators (mean adequacy ratio, mean excess ratio and energy density). In both countries, food items with a NNPS FAIL outcome had a lower nutritional quality according to the UK Ofcom, with an overall agreement between the two systems of 75·7 % in France and 68·8 % in the USA. In both countries, a high (respectively, low) contribution of NNPS PASS (respectively, NNPS FAIL) was positively associated with diet healthiness. Absolute associations were stronger between the contribution of NNPS FAIL products and measures of diet healthiness. Foods and beverages reaching NNPS standards appeared to have a higher nutritional quality and would be more likely to contribute to healthier diets, mainly linked to a reduction of nutrients to limit.

Modeled dietary impact of industry-wide food and beverage reformulations in the United States and France.

Background: Food reformulation has been identified as a strategy to improve nutritional intakes; however, little is known about the potential impact of industry-wide reformulations.Objective: The aim of the study was to model the dietary impact of food and beverage reformulation following the Nestlé Nutritional Profiling System (NNPS) standards for children, adolescents, and adults in the United States and France.Design: Dietary intakes of individuals aged ≥4 y were retrieved from nationally representative surveys: the US NHANES 2011-2012 (n = 7456) and the French Individual and National Survey on Food Consumption (n = 3330). The composition of all foods and beverages consumed were compared with the NNPS standards for energy, total and saturated fats, sodium, added sugars, protein, fiber, and calcium. Two scenarios were modeled. In the first, the nutrient content of foods and beverages was adjusted to the NNPS standards if they were not met. In the second, products not meeting the standards were replaced by the most nutritionally similar alternative meeting the standards from the same category. Dietary intakes were assessed against local nutrient recommendations, and analyses were stratified by body mass index and socioeconomic status.Results: Scenarios 1 and 2 showed reductions in US adults' mean daily energy (-88 and -225 kcal, respectively), saturated fats (-4.2, -6.9 g), sodium (-406, -324 mg), and added sugars (-29.4, -35.8 g). Similar trends were observed for US youth and in France. The effects on fiber and calcium were limited. In the United States, the social gradient of added sugars intake was attenuated in both scenarios compared with the baseline values.Conclusions: Potential industry-wide reformulation of the food supply could lead to higher compliance with recommendations in both the United States and France, and across all socioeconomic groups. NNPS standards seemed to be especially effective for nutrients consumed in excess.

Testing the Capacity of a Multi-Nutrient Profiling System to Guide Food and Beverage Reformulation: Results from Five National Food Composition Databases.

Nutrient profiling ranks foods based on their nutrient composition, with applications in multiple aspects of food policy. We tested the capacity of a category-specific model developed for product reformulation to improve the average nutrient content of foods, using five national food composition datasets (UK, US, China, Brazil, France). Products (n = 7183) were split into 35 categories based on the Nestlé Nutritional Profiling Systems (NNPS) and were then classified as NNPS 'Pass' if all nutrient targets were met (energy (E), total fat (TF), saturated fat (SFA), sodium (Na), added sugars (AS), protein, calcium). In a modelling scenario, all NNPS Fail products were 'reformulated' to meet NNPS standards. Overall, a third (36%) of all products achieved the NNPS standard/pass (inter-country and inter-category range: 32%-40%; 5%-72%, respectively), with most products requiring reformulation in two or more nutrients. The most common nutrients to require reformulation were SFA (22%-44%) and TF (23%-42%). Modelled compliance with NNPS standards could reduce the average content of SFA, Na and AS (10%, 8% and 6%, respectively) at the food supply level. Despite the good potential to stimulate reformulation across the five countries, the study highlights the need for better data quality and granularity of food composition databases.