The Healthfulness of the US Packaged Food and Beverage Supply: A Cross-Sectional Study
by
Abigail S. Baldridge 1,*, Mark D. Huffman 1,2
, Fraser Taylor 2, Dagan Xavier 3, Brooke Bright 3, Linda V. Van Horn 1, Bruce Neal 2 and Elizabeth Dunford 2
Abigail S. Baldridge 1,*, Mark D. Huffman 1,2, Fraser Taylor 2, Dagan Xavier 3, Brooke Bright 3, Linda V. Van Horn 1, Bruce Neal 2 and Elizabeth Dunford 2
1
Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611, USA
2
The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2042, Australia
3
Label Insight, Chicago, IL 60661, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nutrients 2019, 11(8), 1704; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081704
Received: 1 July 2019 / Revised: 18 July 2019 / Accepted: 22 July 2019 / Published: 24 July 2019
The US food supply is dominated by highly-processed packaged food and beverage products that are high in energy, saturated fat, sugar, and salt. We report results of a cross-sectional assessment of the 2018 US packaged food and beverage supply by nutritional composition and indicators of healthfulness and level of processing. Data were obtained through Label Insight’s Open Data database, which represents >80% of all food and beverage products sold in the US over the past three years. Healthfulness and the level of processing, measured by the Health Star Rating (HSR) system and the NOVA classification framework, respectively, were compared across product categories and leading manufacturers. Among 230,156 food and beverage products, the mean HSR was 2.7 (standard deviation (SD) 1.4) from a possible maximum rating of 5.0, and 71% of products were classified as ultra-processed. Healthfulness and level of processing varied substantially by category (range: HSR 1.1–3.9; 0–100% ultra-processed) and manufacturer (range: HSR 0.9–4.6; 26–100% ultra-processed). The US packaged food and beverage supply is large, heterogeneous, highly processed, and generally unhealthy. The wide variability in healthfulness and level of processing demonstrates that opportunities exist, through reformulation or replacement, for large-scale improvements to the healthfulness of the US packaged food and beverage supply.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Baldridge, A.S.; Huffman, M.D.; Taylor, F.; Xavier, D.; Bright, B.; Van Horn, L.V.; Neal, B.; Dunford, E. The Healthfulness of the US Packaged Food and Beverage Supply: A Cross-Sectional Study. Nutrients 2019, 11, 1704.
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