ABSTRACT
The present study aimed to evaluate the nutrient profile of packaged foods marketed in Brazil, giving insights into healthiness of the Brazilian supermarket packaged food environment, considering different food categories and levels of industrial food processing and presence of nutrition and health claims and marketing strategies. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on the labels of pre-packed foods marketed in a home-shopping website. A stratified random sample (n = 335) was obtained to be analysed by four nutrient profile models: Food Standards Australia New Zealand's Nutrient Profiling Scoring Criterion, UK Nutrient Profile from the Food Standards Agency, Nutrient profile model from Pan American Health Organization, and Nutrition Score from Unilever Food & Health Research (Unilever). Overall, the models shown agreement, besides some differences in the levels of approval. Ultra-processed foods were less healthy. Pass rates for products carrying nutrition and/or health claims have evidenced the presence of these claims may be indicative of slightly better nutritional quality. This did not apply for products with and without marketing techniques. These findings highlight the need for improvement of the supermarket packaged food environment in scenarios like Brazil by increasing efforts to reformulate products to make them healthier, together with appropriate food labelling regulation.
ABSTRACT
The effect of the flavor enhancers monoammonium glutamate (MAG), monosodium glutamate (MSG), disodium guanylate (GMP), and disodium inosinate (IMP) on intensifying salty taste in food matrices (shoestring potatoes, requeijão cheese, and beef burgers) with a reduction in the amount of sodium chloride (NaCl) present was evaluated. Experiments were conducted using a central composite rotational design with two variables: the concentrations of flavor enhancer and NaCl added in the food matrix. The effect of IMP was not significant (P > 0.05) on the intensity of salty taste in any of the matrices analyzed. GMP presented lower performance compared to MAG and MSG in intensifying the salty taste of the treatments, regardless of the reduction of NaCl. Compared to MSG and GMP, MAG showed greater efficiency in intensifying the salty taste in requeijão cheese and beef burger with a reduction of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of NaCl. MSG presented higher efficiency compared to MAG and GMP when applied in shoestring potatoes for all reductions of NaCl tested (25%, 50%, and 75%). The ability of flavor enhancers to improve the salty taste depends on the effect of the flavor enhancer, the complexity of the food matrix, and the reduction of NaCl in foods. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The complexity of the food matrix plays a significant role in the perception of salty taste in sodium-reduced products. In these products, sodium reduction may affect the taste enhancer's effect of enhancing salty taste. Therefore, this study broadens the knowledge of the effects of flavor enhancers on different foods, as well as the ability to enhance salty taste in food matrices with NaCl reduction. Moreover, it provides information on how to reduce the sodium content in these matrices while maintaining the same perception of salty taste as a conventional matrix.