Association between nutritional profiles of foods underlying Nutri-Score front-of-pack labels and mortality: EPIC cohort study in 10 European countries

Publication: BMJ

Deschasaux, M, Huybrechts, I, Julia, C, Hercberg, S, Egnell, M, Srour, B, et al.

16 September 2020


This study looked to see if the Food Standards Agency nutrient profiling system (FSAm-NPS), which grades the nutritional quality of food products and is used to derive the Nutri-Score front-of-packet label to guide consumers towards healthier food choices, is associated with mortality, using the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort from 23 centres in 10 European countries.

More than 500,ooo participants’ dietary questionnaires were analysed to assess their usual dietary intakes. A FSAm-NPS score was calculated for each food item per 100 g content of energy, sugars, saturated fatty acids, sodium, fibre, and protein, and of fruit, vegetables, legumes, and nuts. An overall mean of all foods consumed was also calculated; the higher the score the lower the overall nutritional quality of the diet.

The results showed that consuming foods with a higher FSAm-NPS score (lower nutritional quality) was associated with a higher mortality for all causes and for cancer and diseases of the circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems, supporting the relevance of FSAm-NPS to characterise healthier food choices in the context of public health policies (eg, the Nutri-Score) for European populations. This is important considering ongoing discussions about the potential implementation of a unique nutrition labelling system at the European Union level.

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