ArticlePloS one2021
Assessing the healthiness of UK food companies' product portfolios using food sales and nutrient composition data.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of altering restaurant and menu option position on food selected from an experimental food delivery platform: a randomised controlled trial.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2023Trial
- Large nutritional and environmental improvements can be achieved across the product portfolios of major UK food and beverage manufacturers.Nature food · 2026Article
- The case for mandatory reporting to enable targets for healthy and environmentally sustainable food: means, motive and opportunity.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- The UK Food Environment: A Systematic Review of Domains, Methodologies, and Outcomes.Current developments in nutrition · 2025Review
- Evaluation of Ireland's Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax (SSBT).Irish journal of medical science · 2025Article
- Energy, nutrient and overall healthiness of processed packaged foods in Fiji, a comparison between 2018 and 2020.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Effective policies to promote sugar reduction in soft drinks: lessons from a comparison of six European countries.European journal of public health · 2023Article
- The development of a method for the global health community to assess the proportion of food and beverage companies' sales that are derived from unhealthy foods.Globalization and health · 2023Article
- Changes in sodium levels in Australian packaged foods between 2014 and 2019: an interrupted time series analysis of the impact of the Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership's media advocacy strategy.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2023Article
- Benchmarking the nutrition-related commitments and practices of major French food companies.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Monitoring improvements in the nutritional quality of new packaged foods launched between 2016 and 2020.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
- A Proposed Research Agenda for Promoting Healthy Retail Food Environments in the East Asia-Pacific Region.Current nutrition reports · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe provision and over-consumption of foods high in energy, saturated fat, free sugars or salt are important risk factors for poor diet and ill-health. In the UK, policies seek to drive improvement through voluntary reformulation of single nutrients in key food groups. There has been little consideration of the overall progress by individual companies. This study assesses recent changes in the nutrient profile of brands and products sold by the top 10 food and beverage companies in the UK.
methodsThe FSA/Ofcom nutrient profile model was applied to the nutrient composition data for all products manufactured by the top 10 food and beverage companies and weighted by volume sales. The mean nutrient profiling score, on a scale of 1-100 with thresholds for healthy products being 62 for foods and 68 for drinks, was used to rank companies and food categories between 2015 and 2018, and to calculate the proportion of individual products and sales that are considered by the UK Government to be healthy.
resultsBetween 2015 and 2018 there was little change in the sales-weighted nutrient profiling score of the top 10 companies (49 to 51; p = 0.28) or the proportion of products classified as healthy (46% to 48%; p = 0.23). Of the top five brands sold by each of the ten companies, only six brands among ten companies improved their nutrient profiling score by 20% or more. The proportion of total volume sales classified as healthy increased from 44% to 51% (p = 0.07) driven by an increase in the volume sales of bottled water, low/no calorie carbonates and juices, but after removing soft drinks, the proportion of foods classified as healthy decreased from 7% to 6% (p = 33).
conclusionsThe UK voluntary reformulation policies, setting targets for reductions in calories, sugar and salt, do not appear to have led to significant changes in the nutritional quality of foods, though there has been progress in soft drinks where the soft drink industry levy also applies. Further policy action is needed to incentivise companies to make more substantive changes in product composition to support consumers to achieve a healthier diet.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.