Developing nutrient profile models: a systematic approach

Abstract Objective Nutrient profiling can be defined as the ‘the science of categorising foods according to their nutritional composition’. The purpose of the present paper is to describe a systematic and logical approach to nutrient profiling. Design A seven-stage decision-making process is proposed and, as an illustration of how the approach might operate in practice, the development of a nutrient profiling model for the purpose of highlighting breakfast cereals that are ‘high in fat, sugar or salt’ is described. Results The nutrient profile model developed for this paper calculates scores for foods using a simple equation. It enables breakfast cereals to be compared with each other and with other foods eaten at breakfast. Conclusion Nutrient profiling is not new, but hitherto most nutrient profiling models have been developed in an unsystematic and illogical fashion. Different nutrient profiling models are needed for different purposes but a key requirement should be that they are developed using a systematic, transparent and logical process. This paper provides an example of such a process; approaches to validating nutrient profiling models are described elsewhere.