Industry approach to nutrition-based product development and reformulation in Asia

Abstract

In the recent years there has been a proliferation of initiatives to classify food products according to their nutritional composition (e.g., high in fat/sugar) to better guide consumer choices and regulate the food environment. This global trend, lately introduced in Asia as well, utilizes nutrient profiling (NP) to set compositional criteria for food products. Even though the use of NP to set targets for product reformulation has been proposed for years, to date only two NP systems have been specifically developed for that purpose. The majority of the NP applications, especially in Asia, focus on marketing and/or health claim regulation, as well as front-of-pack labeling. Product reformulation has been identified, by the World Health Organization and other official bodies, as a key tool for the food industry to help address public health nutrition priorities and provide support towards the reduction of excessive dietary sugar, salt and fats. In the United Kingdom, the Responsibility Deal is an excellent example of a public-private collaborative initiative that successfully reduced the salt content of products available in the supermarkets by 20-30%, resulting in an estimated 10% reduction in salt intake at the population level. Validation of NP systems targeted towards reformulation supports the hypothesis that, by adopting them, the industry can actively support existing policies in the direction of lowering consumptions in public health-sensitive nutrients. The symposium presented a discussion on the current NP landscape in Asia, the importance of reformulation for public health and the Nestlé approach to improve the food environment in Asia through NP.