Food Compass: Nutrient profiling system targets policymakers and industry with “holistic view of food healthfulness”

18 Oct 2021 --- The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University has developed the Food Compass, a new nutrition profiling system. The tool aims to encourage consumers, food companies, restaurants and cafeterias to choose and produce healthier foods, while helping officials ensure good public nutrition policy.

“During our research, we were surprised by how other current scoring systems, like Nutri-Score and Health Star Rating, are so similar to each other, essentially providing identical information. Based on the scores, Food Compass provides a more accurate, holistic view of the healthfulness of foods,” Dariush Mozaffarian, corresponding author and dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, tells NutritionInsight.

“The Food Compass is a new tool to describe the overall healthfulness of diverse foods, beverages, and even whole meals, supermarket baskets and company product portfolios. We hope this new tool will help guide consumers, product labeling, government policy and industry reformulations toward healthier choices.”

Scoring 54 characteristics across nine domains
The Food Compass system was developed over three years and then tested using a detailed national database of 8,032 foods and beverages consumed by US citizens.

Each food, beverage, or mixed dish receives a final Food Compass score ranging from 1 (least healthy) to 100 (most healthy). The researchers identified 70 or more as a reasonable score for foods or beverages that should be encouraged. Foods and beverages scoring 31-69 should be consumed in moderation. Products scoring 30 or lower should be consumed minimally.The Food Compass nutrient profiling system (Credit: Tufts University).

It takes into account how 54 various nutrients, food ingredients, processing characteristics, phytochemicals and additives of foods positively or negatively impact health. The features of the nutrient system include equally considering healthful versus harmful factors in foods.

The characteristics and domains of the Food Compass were selected based on nutritional attributes linked to major chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular problems and cancer. Further, the risk of undernutrition, especially for mothers, young children and the elderly were also taken into account.

The Food Compass was designed to ensure additional attributes and scoring could evolve based on future evidence in such areas as gastrointestinal health, immune function, brain health, bone health, and physical and mental performance, as well as considerations of sustainability.

Informing consumers and policymakers
Mozaffarian envisions that food companies, retailers, restaurants, worksite wellness programs and healthcare systems can use Food Compass to help guide consumers toward healthier choices, including through front-of-pack, shelf, and menu labeling, as well as economic incentives.

Additionally, institutional and individual investors on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investment decisions will be guided by the Food Compass.Dean Mozaffarian, corresponding author and dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University (Credit: Tufts University).

The system also supplies the science for local and national policies such as package labeling, taxation, warning labels and restrictions on marketing to children. In considering the limits for marketing to children, Action on Sugar previously called for cereal manufacturers to remove child-friendly packaging from unhealthy cereals.

According to Mozaffarian, Food Compass can help guide companies to create healthier products, and inform their customers of these benefits in an objective, independent, credible fashion.

“Consumers, policymakers, and even industry are looking for simple tools to guide everyone toward healthier choices,” he explains.

Better than Nutri-Score?
This latest front-of-pack labeling system stands out from existing systems, argue the researchers.

“Existing nutrient profiling systems have several important limitations, including focusing on outdated targets like total fat and total calories as well as judging foods based on only a handful of attributes,” he outlines.

“Additionally, these systems rate different food categories using different scoring systems, limiting objectivity and the ability to score mixed foods and dishes.”

Industry has previously highlighted the importance of accurate labeling for products as inaccuracies can cause harmful effects to consumers’ health. Action on Salt and Sugar recently called for the UK government to make front-of-pack nutrition labels mandatory without delay following a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Meanwhile, the European Consumer Organization (BEUC) recently raised the need for accurate food labeling for the children’s food sector as it found that children’s packaging praised unhealthy food consumption.

By Nicole Kerr