RT Journal Article
SR 00
ID 10.1002/agr.21914
A1 Spiteri, Marine
A1 Narayanane, Ghislaine
A1 Réquillart, Vincent
A1 Soler, Louis-Georges
T1 Reformulation of processed foods: Mixed effects on salt and saturated fatty acids intake in France
JF Agribusiness
YR 2024
FD 2024-02-13
VO vol. 40
IS n° 3
SP 596
OP 613
AB Encouraging the food industry to reformulate their products is a possible public intervention to improve diet quality. In this paper, we assess the impact of food reformulation on per capita salt and saturated fatty acids (SFAs) intake, in France, for four product categories, namely, potato chips, fresh pizzas, frozen pizzas, and frozen meals, taking into account the changes in products' nutritional quality and consumer choices. Nutrient intake is calculated by matching data on food purchases and nutritional data, collected at the same date. An algorithm is run to disentangle the specific effect of food reformulation. We find that food reformulation, which is based on voluntary individual firm choices or voluntary industry-wide agreement in our case studies, contributes to decrease SFAs and salt intake in seven out of eight cases. However, the magnitude of the impact is moderate, except in the case of potato chips for which a much stronger impact is observed. Product renewal has an ambiguous effect, depending on the nutrient considered. By contrast, changes in consumer behavior increase the intake of SFAs and salt in all cases. Finally, food reformulation generally benefits all consumers equally, regardless of income or age. For food categories with consumption disparities, product reformulation can reduce heterogeneity in nutrient intake across socioeconomic groups, provided that recipes are greatly and widely improved  [EconLit Citations: D12, D22, I1].
SN 0742-4477
LK https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/50315/
UL http://tse-fr.eu/pub/130216