High intakes of red and processed meat, trans fats, sodium and low intakes of fibre and minimally processed plant foods such as wholegrains, fruits, nuts, seeds, and vegetables are major dietary risk factors for the development of non-communicable diseases. Despite the acknowledged health and environmental benefits of many plant foods, consumers lack accessible tools to identify the healthy plant content of packaged foods. This study aimed to develop an algorithm for predicting levels of healthy plant content of packaged foods (namely fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole-grains, nuts and seeds, while excluding oils, ultra-processed ingredients, and plant ingredients with high levels of sugar, such as dried fruit, fruit and vegetable juices, pastes, purees and gels) and to apply this algorithm to the Australian packaged food supply. A five-step method of estimating plant content was developed and applied to 19,269 packaged foods in the 2022 Australian FoodSwitch database. This database contains nutrition composition data for products available in-store across major supermarkets in Australia. The mean (SD) plant content was calculated for different food categories within the food supply and across each of the plant components. In total, 1154 unique ingredients were identified in the packaged food sample, 38.4% of which contained healthy plant content. The mean weight of healthy plant content was 24.6 g/100 g (range 0–100 g/100 g). This was mostly driven by vegetable content (10.0 g/100 g, 40.7% of the total weight), followed by nuts/seeds (5.2 g/100 g, 21.1%), whole-grains (3.9 g/100 g, 15.9%), fruit (3.1 g/100 g, 12.6%) and legumes (2.4 g/100 g, 9.8%). Categories with the highest mean healthy plant content included ‘fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes’ (66.7 (34.1)g/100 g), ‘snack foods’ (43.4 (29.5)g/100 g), and ‘sauces, dressings, spreads, and dips’ (36.0 (34.3)g/100 g). There was wide variation in the healthy plant content within food categories (e.g., 0.0 g to 78.4 g/100 g for ‘cereal and grain products’). The healthy plant content of packaged food in Australia varies substantially between and within product categories. This suggests the potential utility of this algorithm for providing consumers with key information to make healthier and more sustainable food choices.
Coyle et al. (Wed,) studied this question.