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Food Processing and Ultra-Processed Foods: Effect on Nutrition and Human Health

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A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2019) | Viewed by 34648

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mathilde Touvier

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Guest Editor

Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (EREN): Inserm U1153, Inra U1125, CNAM, University of Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité Epidemiology and Statistics Research Center, F-93017, Bobigny, France
Interests: epidemiology; nutrition; chronic disease risk; public health; NutriNet-Santé cohort; food additives; food processing; cancer prevention; dietary supplements; mechanistic epidemiology

Dr. Bernard Srour

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (EREN): Inserm U1153, Inra U1125, CNAM, University of Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité Epidemiology and Statistics Research Center, F-93017, Bobigny, France
Interests: epidemiology; nutrition; cancer prevention; public health; biostatistics; prospective studies; survival analyses; food processing; cancer risk; circadian nutritional behaviours

Assis. Prof. Jean-Claude Moubarac

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Co-Guest Editor

Département de Nutrition, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Liliane de Stewart, Montréal, QC, Canada
Interests: public health nutrition; food systems; food processing; ultra-processed food; food culture; food policies; food industry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

During the last century, dietary patterns in high-income countries have shifted from diets based on freshly prepared and cooked meals based on raw or minimally processed food to diets mostly based on ready-to-eat or heat ultra-processed food. The contribution of ultra-processed foods to daily energy intakes has even reached 60% in the US, and is rising rapidly in low- and middle-income countries today. Innovation in food processing has led to major advances, such as the preservation of food, a reduction in the time needed for cooking, and the improvement in the microbiological quality of the products as well as their broad availability.

However, a specific type of food processing, namely ultra-processing, has been linked to low nutritional quality and adverse health outcomes, although the mechanisms and understanding of these associations remain unclear. Ultra-processed products often have a lower nutritional quality than raw or minimally processed foods (higher contents of total and saturated fat, added sugar and salt, and lower fibre and vitamin density). In order to provide the final product with the desired form and properties, several food additives (emulsifiers, food colorants, texturizing agents, flavour enhancers, preservatives, etc.) may be used, as well as industrial or culinary processes (high-temperature heating, extrusion, pre-treatment by frying, etc.). Final products are then packaged with various materials (plastic boxes or bottles, coated metallic cans, etc.).

It is therefore important to better elucidate the effect of the different processes and substances employed in ultra-processed food and to disentangle the potential health impacts linked to food additives, neo-formed compounds, packaging materials, and the modification of nutritional properties. It is also necessary to better understand the knowledge and practices of people around ultra-processed food, as well as how factors such as cost and availability affect consumption, to inform public health actions. This Special Issue welcomes original articles and reviews in all scientific disciplines (epidemiology, experimental research, social sciences, etc.) related to the effect of food processing in human nutrition and health.

Dr. Mathilde Touvier
Dr. Bernard Srour
Assis. Prof. Jean-Claude Moubarac
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

food processing
health
chronic diseases
food technology
epidemiology
social science
experimental science
food industry innovation
food additives
food contact materials

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 839 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Relative Validity and Reproducibility of a Food Frequency Questionnaire to Assess Energy Intake from Minimally Processed and Ultra-Processed Foods in Young Children

by Louise J. Fangupo, Jillian J. Haszard, Claudia Leong, Anne-Louise M. Heath, Elizabeth A. Fleming and Rachael W. Taylor

Nutrients 2019, 11(6), 1290; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11061290 - 7 Jun 2019

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4108

Abstract

NOVA is a food classification system that categorises food items into one of four categories according to the extent and purpose of their processing: minimally processed food (MPF), processed culinary ingredient (PCI), processed food (PF), or ultra-processed food (UPF). The aim of this study was to determine the relative validity and reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire (EAT5 FFQ) for measuring daily energy intake (EI kJ) and percentage of daily energy intake (EI%) from each NOVA group in New Zealand children. One hundred parents of five year old children completed the 123 item EAT5 FFQ on two occasions four weeks apart. A 3 day weighed diet record (WDR) was completed on non-consecutive randomly assigned days between FFQ appointments. The FFQ overestimated EI (both as kJ and %) from MPF and UPF, and underestimated intakes from PCI and PF, compared with the WDR. Bland–Altman plots indicated reasonably consistent agreement between FFQ and WDR for MPF and UPF but not PCI or PF. Correlation coefficients between the FFQ and WDR were acceptable for EI (%) for MPF (r = 0.31) and UPF (r = 0.30). The FFQ differentiated between the highest and lowest quartiles for EI (%) from MPF and UPF foods (p-values for the trends were 0.006 and 0.009 respectively), and for EI (kJ) from UPF foods (p-value for trend 0.003). Bland–Altman plots indicated consistent agreement between repeat administrations of FFQ for MPF and UPF only, while intra-class correlations suggested good reproducibility for EI (kJ and %) for all four NOVA categories (range 0.51–0.76). The EAT5 FFQ has acceptable relative validity for ranking EI (%) from MPF and UPF. It has good reproducibility for measuring EI from all four NOVA categories, in young children. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Processing and Ultra-Processed Foods: Effect on Nutrition and Human Health)

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15 pages, 1090 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Trends in Ultra-Processed Food Purchases from 1984 to 2016 in Mexican Households

by Joaquín Alejandro Marrón-Ponce, Lizbeth Tolentino-Mayo, Mauricio Hernández-F and Carolina Batis

Nutrients 2019, 11(1), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11010045 - 26 Dec 2018

Cited by 70 | Viewed by 10951

Abstract

Global trade agreements have shaped the food system in ways that alter the availability, accessibility, affordability, and desirability of ready-to-eat foods. We assessed the time trends of ultra-processed foods purchases in Mexican households from 1984 to 2016. Cross-sectional data from 15 rounds of the National Income and Expenditure Survey (1984, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016) were analyzed. Food and beverage purchases collected in a daily record instrument (over seven days) were classified according to their degree of processing according to the NOVA food framework: (1) Unprocessed or minimally processed foods; (2) processed culinary ingredients; (3) processed foods; and (4) ultra-processed foods. From 1984 to 2016, the total daily energy purchased decreased from 2428.8 to 1875.4 kcal/Adult Equivalent/day, there was a decrease of unprocessed or minimally processed foods (from 69.8% to 61.4% kcal) and processed culinary ingredients (from 14.0% to 9.0% kcal), and an increase of processed foods (from 5.7% to 6.5% kcal) and ultra-processed foods (from 10.5% to 23.1% kcal). Given that ultra-processed foods purchases have doubled in the last three decades and unprocessed or minimally processed foods purchased have gradually declined, future strategies should promote the consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods, and discourage ultra-processed foods availability and accessibility in Mexico. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Processing and Ultra-Processed Foods: Effect on Nutrition and Human Health)

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12 pages, 567 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Nutritional Composition and Bioactive Content of Legumes: Characterization of Pulses Frequently Consumed in France and Effect of the Cooking Method

by Marielle Margier, Stéphane Georgé, Noureddine Hafnaoui, Didier Remond, Marion Nowicki, Laure Du Chaffaut, Marie-Josèphe Amiot and Emmanuelle Reboul

Nutrients 2018, 10(11), 1668; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10111668 - 4 Nov 2018

Cited by 144 | Viewed by 12339

Abstract

Pulses display nutritional benefits and are recommended in sustainable diets. Indeed, they are rich in proteins and fibers, and can contain variable amounts of micronutrients. However, pulses also contain bioactive compounds such as phytates, saponins, or polyphenols/tannins that can exhibit ambivalent nutritional properties depending on their amount in the diet. We characterized the nutritional composition and bioactive compound content of five types of prepared pulses frequently consumed in France (kidney beans, white beans, chickpeas, brown and green lentils, flageolets), and specifically compared the effects of household cooking vs. canning on the composition of pulses that can be consumed one way or the other. The contents in macro-, micronutrients, and bioactive compounds highly varied from one pulse to another (i.e., 6.9 to 9.7 g/100 g of cooked product for proteins, 4.6 to 818.9 µg/100 g for lutein or 15.0 to 284.3 mg/100 g for polyphenols). The preparation method was a key factor governing pulse final nutritional composition in hydrophilic compounds, depending on pulse species. Canning led to a greater decrease in proteins, total dietary fibers, magnesium or phytate contents compared to household cooking (i.e., −30%, −44%, −33% and −38%, p < 0.05, respectively, in kidney beans). As canned pulses are easy to use for consumers, additional research is needed to improve their transformation process to further optimize their nutritional quality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Processing and Ultra-Processed Foods: Effect on Nutrition and Human Health)

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Review

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16 pages, 2596 KiB

Open AccessReview

Effect of Rice Processing towards Lower Rapidly Available Glucose (RAG) Favors Idli, a South Indian Fermented Food Suitable for Diabetic Patients

by Ramachandran Chelliah, Sangeeta Chandrashekar, Kandasamy Saravanakumar, Sudha Rani Ramakrishnan, Momna Rubab, Eric Banan-Mwine Daliri, Kaliyan Barathikannan, Akanksha Tyagi, Fred Kwame Ofosu, Xiuqin Chen, Se-Hun Kim, Fazle Elahi, Han NaKyeong, Myeong-Hyeon Wang, Vijaykumar Raman, Usha Antony and Deog-Hwan Oh

Nutrients 2019, 11(7), 1497; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11071497 - 30 Jun 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 6582

Abstract

The Asian food pattern primarily embraces rice and rice-based products, which mainly comprise 90% starch. Among these various food products, Idli is mostly prepared through fermentation. It has high palatability, and the rapid and highly digestible nature of the food product results in a higher post-glucose level in diabetic patients. A heat-treated Idli rice sample was prepared by roasting parboiled rice at the temperature range of 155 to 165 °C for 65 to 75 s. Idli/rice-based Dokala made from heat-treated rice is better when compared to untreated rice in terms of its microbiological profile and physiochemical properties. The proximate composition of heat-treated parboiled rice Idli/Rice Dokala showed slightly higher values than the untreated parboiled rice Idli/Rice Dokala, which reveals that it has marginally higher nutritive value. Determination of the Rapidly Available Glucose (RAG) and Slowly Available Glucose (SAG) values, SEM analysis, resistant starch analysis, microbial assay, and in vivo studies were performed to determine the glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load in normal and diabetic persons. Sensory analysis also proved that heat-treated Idli/Rice Dokala is superior to untreated based on the color, flavor, appearance, taste, and texture. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Processing and Ultra-Processed Foods: Effect on Nutrition and Human Health)

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