Nutrient profiling: lessons from two decades of use

Summary

This narrative review by Drewnowski and Fulgoni, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, reflects on approximately two decades of nutrient profiling research, evaluating how scoring systems designed to rank foods by nutritional quality have been developed and deployed. The authors likely examine methodological variation across models, their use in front-of-pack labelling, marketing regulation, and dietary assessment, drawing on a substantial body of empirical and applied work. The paper is expected to offer a critical appraisal of where nutrient profiling has succeeded and where inconsistencies or limitations remain, particularly in capturing overall diet quality.

UK applicability

Nutrient profiling is directly relevant to UK food policy, notably through the Nutrient Profile Model used by the Food Standards Agency and the Advertising Standards Authority to regulate marketing of less healthy foods to children; the lessons reviewed in this paper would be pertinent to ongoing UK debates around front-of-pack labelling and HFSS product restrictions.

Key measures

Nutrient profile scores; nutrient density indices; food classification outcomes; alignment with dietary guidelines

Outcomes reported

The paper reviews the evolution and application of nutrient profiling models over approximately twenty years, examining how these scoring systems have been used to rank or classify foods based on their nutritional composition. It likely assesses the strengths, limitations, and policy applications of different nutrient profiling approaches across food labelling, dietary guidance, and public health contexts.

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