Restricting promotions of ‘less healthy’ foods and beverages by price and location: a big data application of UK Nutrient Profiling Models to a retail product dataset

The UK government plans to limit price-based and location-based promotions for products high in saturated fat, salt and sugars. The 2004/5 UK nutrient profile model (NPM) is the proposed legislative basis, but may be superseded by the draft 2018 NPM. This study develops an algorithm to apply both NPMs to a large food composition database (FCDB), and assesses implementation challenges.

UK NPMs were applied algorithmically to the myfood24 FCDB, representing ~45,000 retail products. Pass-rates - indicating free or restricted promotions - and micronutrient compositions were compared. Challenges were assessed and recommendations addressed the legislation’s public consultation questions.

For products in scope (75% of total), 6% fewer passed the 2018 NPM (36%, p<0.001) compared with the 2004/5 NPM (42%). Beverages showed the greatest reduction in pass-rate (75%). Under both models, micronutrient contents (per 100 g of product) were generally lower for products which passed; except folate, vitamin C and vitamin D that were no different for passed and failed products. Compared with products passing the 2004/5 NPM, products passing the 2018 NPM on average had marginally higher amounts of iron (0.05 mg, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.08, p<0.001) and magnesium (1.00 mg, 95% CI: 0.00, 1.17, p=0.029), but marginally lower levels of calcium (-0.42 mg, 95% CI: -2.00, -0.40, p=0.025).

Missing ingredient information and heterogeneous product categories were challenges for both NPMs. Free sugar calculation further complicated 2018 NPM application. To balance feasibility and public health benefit, the proposed legislative basis may not be appropriate.