Label-reported nutritional values and within-category variability in packaged processed meat products: a cross-sectional study from the Turkish market

This study examined the nutritional values reported on the labels of packaged processed meat products sold in the Turkish market, per 100 g of product, and also determined the differences and within-category variability of these values among product categories. In this cross-sectional descriptive study, label data were collected from physical supermarkets in different cities across Türkiye and nationally accessible online retail and manufacturer websites between January and May 2026. Energy, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugars, protein, and salt values were recorded for 201 products in the categories of sucuk, salami, sausage, ham, pastirma, smoked meat, kavurma, and doner. Categories were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis test, and Bonferroni correction was applied for pairwise comparisons. All nutritional variables differed significantly across product categories in the omnibus Kruskal–Wallis analyses (p ≤ 0.001). The highest median energy, fat, and saturated fat values were determined in sucuk, at 432 kcal/100 g, 40 g/100 g, and 21 g/100 g, respectively. The highest median protein and salt values were found in pastirma, at 31 g/100 g and 5.5 g/100 g, respectively. Within-category variability differed by nutrient; the widest variability in energy, fat, and saturated fat was observed in doner products, in carbohydrate in ham products, in sugars in doner products, in protein in smoked meat products, and in salt in pastirma products. In conclusion, the nutritional values of packaged processed meat products vary both between categories and within the same category. Therefore, nutritional information should be evaluated not only on a category basis but also on a product basis.