A New Approach to Assess of Diet Quality: Nutrient Profiling

Abstract

Diets of many populations are becoming energy dense but nutrient poor. Despite the rising rates of obesity, many people are not meeting their dietary needs for essential nutrients (e.g. protein, fiber, calcium, iron, vitamin B12, folic acid). Nutrient rich diets have been recommended by health authorities, however, it is not always easy to interpret the nutrient density of foods, especially when they are a mixture of different food groups. Therefore, an objective tool which assesses the nutrient composition of foods is required to help consumers making healthy food choices. Nutrient profiling, developed to meet this requirement, is the science of ranking foods based on their nutritional composition. In addition to consumer education, nutrient profiling can have multiple applications such as regulation of nutrition labels, health claims, and marketing and advertising to children. The development of nutrient profiles needs to follow specific science-driven rules. These include the selection of reference nutrients and reference amounts, the creation of an appropriate algorithm for calculating nutrient quality scores, and the validation of the chosen scheme against objective measures of a healthy diet. A number of nutrient profile models have been developed by researchers, regulatory agencies, and by the food industry. Nutrient Rich Food (NRF) Index is one of the most commonly used scoring model, especially for consumers’ nutrition education.