ArticlePublic health nutrition2020
Lack of nutrient declarations and low nutritional quality of pre-packaged foods sold in Guatemalan supermarkets.
Article in Public health nutrition, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evaluation of Nutritional Labeling and In Vitro Digestibility of Foods with Andean Grains in Peruvian Supermarkets.Plant foods for human nutrition (Dordrecht, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- Nutritional Status and Dietary Intakes of a Community of Rural Women in Bárcena Villa Nueva, Guatemala: A Small-Scale Observational Study.Nutrients · 2026Observational
- Nutritional quality of pre-packaged foods in Nigeria: findings from the NigeFE study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Nutrients of concern for older infants and young children in packaged food products available in Nepali retail stores.The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia · 2025Article
- "Marketing through Claims": A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Child-Targeted Food Packaging Claims within the Spanish Market.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Efficacy of front-of-pack warning label system versus guideline for daily amount on healthfulness perception, purchase intention and objective understanding of nutrient content of food products in Guatemala: a cross-over cluster randomized controlled experiment.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2023Article
- Ultraprocessed Products as Food Fortification Alternatives: A Critical Appraisal from Latin America.Nutrients · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo assess the presence of nutrition declarations and nutritional quality in pre-packaged food products sold in Guatemala.
designWe photographed nutrition labels of pre-packaged foods. We extracted information about declaration of energy, total/saturated/trans-fats, total/added sugars and Na content (critical nutrients). We classified all products according to their degree of processing (NOVA classification) and nutritional quality (PAHO and WHO-Europe nutrient profile models).
settingPre-packaged foods for sale in seven supermarkets in Guatemala City.
participantsThis study did not involve human subjects.
resultsWe assessed 3459 pre-packaged foods, including 80 % ultra-processed, 7 % processed and 13 % unprocessed/minimally processed foods or culinary ingredients. Nutritional information was available in 3021 products (87·3 %). Energy content was declared in 87·0 %; total fats in 86·1 %; saturated fats in 81·5 %; trans-fats in 48·9 %; total sugars in 70·3 %; added sugars in 0·5 % and Na/salt in 85·5 % of products. Insufficient nutrient information made impossible to assess nutritional quality in 36·6 and 17·1 % of products with the PAHO and WHO-Europe models, respectively. Using PAHO and WHO nutrient profiles, we found that 66·2 and 50 % of food products did not meet the model's nutritional criteria.
conclusionsA high proportion of pre-packaged foods with nutritional information available in Guatemalan supermarkets do not meet the nutritional criteria recommended by WHO and PAHO. Furthermore, a high proportion of products did not declare critical nutrients and many did not even provide any nutritional information. National regulations should consider making critical nutrient declarations (including trans-fats and sugars) mandatory for all products.
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