Despite Targets, Food Manufacturers Fail to Make Healthier Foods

  • A study investigated how the nutritional value of products from the top 10 global food and drink companies changed in response to voluntary reformulation policies in the United Kingdom.
  • The results suggest that although these targets did not significantly affect products’ nutritional values, a soft drink industry levy was successful in reducing the sugar content in drinks.
  • The researchers say that further policy action is necessary to incentivize companies to change product composition to improve public health.

Poor diets, including those that incorporate foods high in calories, sugar, and salt, are a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseaseTrusted SourcecancerTrusted Source, and general mortalityTrusted Source.

In 2019, a study found that poor diets account for 18.2% of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes costs in the United States, which equates to $50.4 billion.

In recent years, Public Health England (PHE) has published a series of voluntary reformulation targets to encourage manufacturers to improve the nutritional values of their food. These included reduction targets for caloriessugar, and salt.

There has been little research on how reformulation targets influence the nutritional values of products by individual companies. Monitoring this could help policymakers develop better ways to improve public health.

Scientists from the University of Oxford in the U.K. recently conducted a study investigating how the nutritional value of products from the top 10 global food and drinks companies changed in response to voluntary reformulation targets in the U.K.

“Our study shows it is possible to monitor the overall healthiness of company product portfolios and chart changes over time,” says Dr. Lauren Bandy of the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Population Health.

“We saw little evidence that the recommended current targets have made a significant difference, and we believe that without more policy action and a transparent monitoring and evaluation system, it is unlikely there will be meaningful change.”

The researchers published their findings in PLOS ONETrusted Source.

Data analysis

The scientists used Euromonitor International to identify the 10 largest food and soft drink manufacturers and examine the sales data for their brands and products between 2015 and 2018.

Altogether, these companies accounted for 24% of the £71.3 billion in sales generated in the U.K. in 2018. They included names such as Coca-Cola, Mondelez International, and Premier Foods.

The researchers also used Edge by Ascential, a private analytics company, to collect nutrition data on all brands that the companies sold between 2015 and 2018.

They then applied a nutrient profile model — which the Food Standards Agency developed for the Office for Communications (Ofcom) — to each product to rate their healthiness.

The team awarded the products points based on their energy, saturated fat, total sugar, sodium level, fiber, and protein, as well as their fruit, nut, and vegetable (FNV) contents.

Between 2015 and 2018, the number of products that the companies manufactured decreased slightly from 3,471 to 3,273.

The researchers also noted a small increase in the proportion of healthy products that the companies offered. In 2015, 46% of products met the criteria for a healthy classification, compared with 48% of products in 2018.

They also found an increase in the proportion of healthy sales from 44% in 2015 to 51% in 2018. However, this change was largely due to an increase in sales of bottled water, low or no-calorie drinks, and fruit juice.

Overall, the researchers found that voluntary reformulation targets led to no significant changes in product nutritional values among the top 10 food and drink companies between 2015 and 2018.

They also found that the average nutritional values of these products collectively fell below the Ofcom threshold for broadcast advertising.

Sugar levy for soft drinks

To explain their results, the researchers say that the introduction of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) in 2018 likely drove the small increase in more healthy soft drink sales.

The SDIL works by charging companies for excess sugarTrusted Source in their drinks. There is a tax of £0.24 per liter on drinks with 8 grams (g) or more of sugar per 100 milliliters (ml), with a lower tax of £0.18 for those with 5–8 g per 100 ml, and no tax for those with less than 5 g per 100 ml.

“When you compare the lack of overall change, we saw in foods with the reductions we saw in the sugar content of soft drinks, it would be easy to draw the line between the voluntary nature of the food reformulation targets and the mandatory and fiscal nature of the soft drinks tax,” Dr. Bandy recently told Medical News Today.

“Other than for acting in a responsible way and to enable consumers to eat more healthily, manufacturers have little incentive to reformulate their products to meet the reformulation targets set out by PHE,” she continued.

The researchers conclude that transparent monitoring and evaluation of food nutritional values could make it easier for policymakers to work with companies to improve public health.

Assessing the healthiness of UK food companies’ product portfolios using food sales and nutrient composition data

Lauren Kate Bandy, Sven Hollowell, Richard Harrington, Peter Scarborough, Susan Jebb, Mike Rayner

Published: August 4, 2021    https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0254833

Abstract

Background

The provision and over-consumption of foods high in energy, saturated fat, free sugars or salt are important risk factors for poor diet and ill-health. In the UK, policies seek to drive improvement through voluntary reformulation of single nutrients in key food groups. There has been little consideration of the overall progress by individual companies. This study assesses recent changes in the nutrient profile of brands and products sold by the top 10 food and beverage companies in the UK.

Methods

The FSA/Ofcom nutrient profile model was applied to the nutrient composition data for all products manufactured by the top 10 food and beverage companies and weighted by volume sales. The mean nutrient profiling score, on a scale of 1–100 with thresholds for healthy products being 62 for foods and 68 for drinks, was used to rank companies and food categories between 2015 and 2018, and to calculate the proportion of individual products and sales that are considered by the UK Government to be healthy.

Results

Between 2015 and 2018 there was little change in the sales-weighted nutrient profiling score of the top 10 companies (49 to 51; p = 0.28) or the proportion of products classified as healthy (46% to 48%; p = 0.23). Of the top five brands sold by each of the ten companies, only six brands among ten companies improved their nutrient profiling score by 20% or more. The proportion of total volume sales classified as healthy increased from 44% to 51% (p = 0.07) driven by an increase in the volume sales of bottled water, low/no calorie carbonates and juices, but after removing soft drinks, the proportion of foods classified as healthy decreased from 7% to 6% (p = 33).

Conclusions

The UK voluntary reformulation policies, setting targets for reductions in calories, sugar and salt, do not appear to have led to significant changes in the nutritional quality of foods, though there has been progress in soft drinks where the soft drink industry levy also applies. Further policy action is needed to incentivise companies to make more substantive changes in product composition to support consumers to achieve a healthier diet.

Citation: Bandy LK, Hollowell S, Harrington R, Scarborough P, Jebb S, Rayner M (2021) Assessing the healthiness of UK food companies’ product portfolios using food sales and nutrient composition data. PLoS ONE 16(8): e0254833. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254833

 Editor: Jane Anne Scott, Curtin University, AUSTRALIA

Received: January 21, 2021; Accepted: July 4, 2021; Published: August 4, 2021

Copyright: © 2021 Bandy et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

 

Data Availability: This study used data from two commercial sources. The sales data was accessed under licence from Euromonitor International (https://www.euromonitor.com/packaged-food) via the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, using Euromonitor’s database portal Passport GMID. The product information dataset, including nutrition composition data, was purchased for the purpose of the lead author’s DPhil research project from Edge by Ascential (https://www.ascentialedge.com/our-solutions). Due to licencing restrictions, the Euromonitor and Edge by Ascential datasets can only be requested under licence for the purpose of verification and replication of study’s findings via the research group’s Data Access Committee (contact: Trisha Gordon [email protected]). Further use of these datasets must be negotiated with the data owners (Euromonitor contact: Ashton Moses – [email protected], Edge by Ascential contact: David Beech – [email protected]). The authors received no special privileges in accessing the data.

 

Funding: LB, SH and MR are funded by the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford. PS is funded by a British Heart Foundation Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellowship (FS/15/34/31656). All authors are part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). SJ is also funded by the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Oxford at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and is an NIHR senior investigator. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The provision and consumption of foods high in energy, saturated fat, free sugars or salt is an important marker of poor diet and associated with substantial morbidity [1]. To support improvements in public health nutrition, Public Health England (PHE) published a series of voluntary, category-specific reformulation targets for calories, sugar and salt [24] to encourage manufacturers to improve the nutritional quality of everyday products. Progress has been monitored by measuring change in the levels of individual nutrients and does not include a more holistic view of how the nutritional quality of products has changed overall.

The food industry in the UK is powerful and consolidated; in 2018, the retail value sales of packaged food and soft drinks products was £71.3 billion, with the 10 largest companies accounting for nearly a quarter (24%) of the total [5]. In order for PHE’s voluntary reformulation targets to be successful in improving quality of the UK population’s diet, food manufacturers–especially the largest companies whose products dominate the market—must make changes across a range of products. So far, PHE has focused on changes in specific food groups and has published only limited company-level analysis, but progress by company is vital to understanding the industry response to the targets.

Nutrient profiling is “the science of classifying and ranking foods according to their nutritional composition for reasons related to preventing disease and promoting health” [6]. Nutrient profiling generally involves the application of a model that classifies or ranks foods based on their overall nutrition composition, rather than looking at individual nutrients in isolation. It has multiple purposes, including supporting health-related labelling schemes and restricting the marketing of foods to children [7]. The UK Government’s current nutrient profile model was developed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to provide the Office for Communications (Ofcom) with a tool to differentiate between foods that can and cannot be advertised to children, based on their nutrition composition [8].

The aim of this study was to assess how the nutritional quality of products offered by the top 10 global food and drink companies has changed over time by applying the FSA/Ofcom nutrient profiling model to a composition database, and weighting it using product sales data.

Methods

Data types and sources

Volume sales data was sourced from Euromonitor and accessed through the Oxford University Library. The top 10 UK food and soft drink manufacturers and their brands were identified based on global company names using 2018 sales data from Euromonitor [5]. A company is defined by Euromonitor as: “the legal entity that produces or distributes an individual or group of brands in the UK”. All of the brands manufactured by these companies between 2015 and 2018 were identified, including those that dropped in or out of the market. Brands were defined as a set of products that have the same generic name and are manufactured by one company.

The composition data were provided by Edge by Ascential (previously Brand View), a private analytics company that collects product information, including nutrient composition data, by scraping the websites of the UK’s three leading retailers: Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. These data were scraped from these three websites on the same date (13th December) for four consecutive years (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018). The sales data and nutrition composition data were automatically matched in Python based on three identifier variables that were present in both databases: brand name, category and year. A 10% random sample of brands was checked manually for any errors. Of the 20 brands checked, 4 brands were identified as pairing with the correct brand name but incorrect category. All 4 of these errors were brands that appeared in more than one category (e.g. Cadbury is present in five categories, including baked goods and confectionery). The matching code was adjusted so that it first paired based on matching categories, and then brand names, and no errors were identified after further checks.

Applying the FSA/Ofcom nutrient profile model

The FSA/Ofcom nutrient profile model was applied to the individual product composition data. The appropriate points were awarded based on each product’s energy, saturated fat, total sugar and sodium content (“A-points”) and fibre, protein and fruit, nut and vegetable (FNV) content (“C-points”) per 100g, as set out by FSA/Ofcom’s technical guidance [9]. This system was developed for the purposes of restricting advertising of food to children, but here we have used it to classify products as healthy and unhealthy. A food is classified as ‘less healthy’ if it scores four points or more. A drink is classified as ‘less healthy’ if it scores 1 point or more. For the purpose of comparing companies’ entire product portfolios, we converted the nutrient profile score to a 1–100 scale (-2(original score) +70), so that a higher score indicates healthier products. In order to directly compare drink scores with food scores, we also applied a linear adjustment to the distribution of the soft drinks scores (11x – 704, where x is the score for drinks on the 1–100 scale). The linear adjustment was selected so that the 33rd percentile and 66th percentile of both foods and drinks received the same score (44 and 66, respectively). After the scale conversion and linear adjustment, the thresholds for products to be considered healthy according to the FSA/Ofcom nutrient profile model were 62 or more for foods and 66 or more for drinks.

If the nutrient content for a product was missing, then data was imputed by calculating a brand average for foods in the same category, and if this was not possible, an overall category average. FNV content was estimated based on the ingredients list to categorise ingredients into ‘fruit’, ‘nut’, ‘vegetable’ and ‘other’. The percentage composition of ingredients was identified if this information was provided in the ingredients list. For the products where percentage of ingredients were not given, values were imputed based on a brand and category average, or if this was not possible, a category average.

Variables calculated

The total value (£ millions) and volume of food and soft drinks (tonnes) and the sales weighted mean nutrient profiling score (referred to in figure labels as sales-weighted score) were calculated in R for each company and brand, both overall and by category. When one brand had multiple product variants, a simple mean was used. While all brands were included in the analysis, only the top five for each company (n = 50) were presented for the brand-level analyses (Fig 3) for clarity. Bubble and chewing gum and milk formulas for infants, toddlers and children were excluded.

Statistical analysis

Chi-squared tests were performed in R to test if there were any significant changes in the number of brands and products each company manufactured over time (2015–2018). ANOVA tests were used to test for differences over time in the nutrient profiling scores overall and for each company, category and brand.

Results

In 2018, the top 10 food and soft drink companies had total value sales of £17.1 billion (Table 1). The top 10 companies by value were also the largest 10 in terms of volume sales, although there is variation in the ranking between these two measures. Food company Mondelez is the largest in value terms, while Coca Cola is the largest company in volume terms.

Download:

Table 1. Number of products, brands and total volume sales by company, 2018.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254833.t001

In 2018, there were 3273 individual products produced by these companies and included in the dataset under 222 different brands. Premier Foods had the largest product portfolio in 2018, with 613 individual products. Kellogg had the smallest, with 91 individual products. There was a decline in the total number of products that were manufactured by the top 10 companies over the period of analysis, from 3471 in 2015 to 3273 in 2018, a reduction of 6% (p <0.05). Seven out of ten of the companies reduced the number of products they manufacture.

Between 2015 and 2018 there was little change in the sales-weighted mean nutrient profiling score of all the products manufactured by included companies, moving from 49 to 51 (p = 0.28). The number of individual products that could be classified as healthy also remained relatively unchanged, at 46% in 2015 and 48% in 2018 (p = 0.23) There was an increase from 44% to 51% in the total volume sales classified as healthy (p = 0.07). Once soft drinks were removed, the proportion of volume sales that were classified as healthy decreased from 7% in 2015 to 6% in 2018 (p = 0.33).

The company that saw the largest increase in sales-weighted nutrient profiling score was Coca-Cola (48 to 51), although its score still remained below the FSA/Ofcom threshold (Fig 1). The company with the highest sales-weighted nutrient profiling score was Danone, with a large proportion of sales from dairy and bottled water, followed by Kraft Heinz, which has high volume sales of high-scoring pre-prepared baby foods. Coca-Cola, Mars, Unilever, Nestlé and Mondelez scored poorly, with portfolios dominated by confectionery and snacks.

Download:

Fig 1. Total sales-weighted nutrient profiling score by company and year.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254833.g001

Baby food had the healthiest nutrient profiling score in 2018, at 72 (Fig 2) but little change over time. Spreads, confectionery and ice cream and desserts were the categories with the lowest nutrient profiling score. There was weak evidence of increases in score over time of staples, dairy, soft drinks and baked goods.

Download:

Fig 2. Total sales-weighted nutrient profiling score by category and year.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254833.g002

There was great heterogeneity between companies within some categories (Fig 3). For example, the company scores within the baked goods category ranged from 22 (Nestlé) to 69 (Premier Foods). In contrast, there was less variation within savoury snacks (39–52) and confectionery (26–42). Coca-Cola was the least diverse company producing only soft drinks, while Mondelez and Nestlé were the most diverse, with their portfolios containing products from six categories.

Download:

Fig 3. Sales-weighted nutrient profiling score by company and category, 2018.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254833.g003

Of the five top-selling brands of each company, there were increases in the sales-weighted nutrient profiling score over time for Fanta (Coca-Cola), Volvic (Danone), San Pellegrino (Nestlé), Coco-Pops (Kellogg), Maltesers (Mars) and Angel Delight (Premier Foods) (Fig 4). Only Special K (Kellogg) saw its score cross the Ofcom threshold, up from 58 in 2015 to 62 in 2018 (+7%, p = 0.10). The largest increases were seen in soft drink brands San Pellegrino (+88%, p<0.01), Fanta (+28%, p<0.01) and Volvic (+26%, p<0.01) due to reductions in sugar and energy content. Tropicana (PepsiCo) saw a significant decrease in its score (-14%, p<0.01) due to a reduction in the proportion of sales of reduced sugar products, where the number of different products decreased over time. Coco-Pops (Kellogg) improved its score with an increase of 27% (p<0.01) due to a reduction in sugar, energy and salt. There was no strong evidence for changes in the scores of the top 5 brands for Kraft Heinz, Mondelez, PepsiCo and Unilever.

Download:

Fig 4. Sales-weighted nutrient profiling score for top 5 brands by company 2015–2018.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254833.g004

Discussion

Between 2015 and 2018, there was no evidence of change in the overall mean sales weighted nutrient profiling score of products sold by the top 10 food and drink companies in the UK. This mean score remained well below the Ofcom threshold for broadcast advertising. There was only one company (Kellogg’s) where there was weak evidence for improvement in its overall company score due to reductions in sugar and salt in two of its leading brands (Coco-Pops and Special K). There was a very small increase in the number of products classified as healthy (46% in 2015 to 47% in 2018) but a greater increase in the proportion of sales that were classified as healthy (44% in 2015 to 51% in 2018). This was largely attributable to a reduction in the sugar content of some soft drink products and an increase in the volume sales of healthy beverages (bottled water, low/no calorie drinks and fruit juices), changes likely driven by the introduction of the Soft Drink Industry Levy in 2018 [10,11]. Once soft drinks were removed, the proportion of healthy sales fell to 6% in 2018, down from 7% in 2015. This suggests that despite PHE’s reformulation targets for calories, sugar and salt, there has been no improvement in the nutritional quality of foods that people are buying.

Strengths and limitations

By pairing composition data with sales data and applying a nutrient profile model, both the relative healthiness of individual foods and drinks available, and the relative healthiness of what is sold have been assessed, and how this has changed over time. This gives an idea of how companies are responding to voluntary reformulation targets to improve the nutritional quality of their products overall, rather than in relation to a single nutrient.

Only 10 companies, based on global company name, were included in the analysis, which represented 24% of total value sales in the UK in 2018 [5]. These companies were selected based on their value sales, although they are also the top 10 companies in terms of volume sales. By selecting companies based on their global, rather than national, names, UK retailers were excluded from the analysis. This is a major limitation given that own-label brands from the top 3 UK retailers (Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda) represented a total market share of 21% in 2018 [5]. While this study sets out a useful and important method for ranking companies in terms of healthiness of product portfolios, future studies should include retailers and a wider range of companies. This would give a more comprehensive picture of how food and drink companies and retailers in the UK are changing their products to meet public health targets. There are a number of data-driven limitations. The first is in relation to missing and imputed data. The values for seven nutrients (energy, saturated fat, total sugars, sodium, fibre, protein and FNV content) are needed to calculate the FSA/Ofcom nutrient profile score of a product. 32% of the 13,371 products included in this study had missing values for fibre, and 67% products had insufficient ingredients information and composition detail to be able to calculate %FNV accurately. There was no difference in the proportion of missing values over time. Missing values were imputed with either a category and/or brand average. The high proportion of missing/imputed fibre and FNV was to be expected as the labelling of fibre on foods is not mandatory (unlike other macronutrients) [12] and the percentages for individual ingredients (i.e. FNV ingredients) only have to be stated when the product title includes an ingredient name, or when a claim about the amount of an ingredient has been made on the label [13].

To test what impact the imputed fibre data had on the results, a sensitivity analysis was conducted. 31% (n = 4186) of all products in the original dataset had imputed fibre values, and these were evenly distributed across the four years. For our sensitivity analysis, we adjusted the fibre content for these products to 0.0g/100g, with the FSA/Ofcom points awarded for fibre also then given 0, the lowest score possible. The number of products that were classified as healthy fell from 47% to 46% in 2018, and there were negligible changes in the total sales-weighted nutrient profiling score for 2018, which fell from 51 to 50.

For fruit, nut and vegetable (FNV) content, 8896 (67%) of included products had imputed values, although three-quarters of these (n = 6624) fell into categories that you would not expect to contain enough FNV to score one point: baked goods, confectionery, dairy, ice cream, savoury snacks, soft drinks, spreads and staples. To test what impact the imputed FNV data may have had on the results, the remaining 2272 products (baby food, breakfast cereals, ready meals, and sauces, dressings and condiments) had their %FNV adjusted to 0%. After this adjustment, 25% (n = 564) of the 2272 products saw a change in their final Ofcom score. The overall proportion of products classified as healthy in 2018 fell from 47% to 46%. The results were the same as those found with the fibre sensitivity analysis, with a similar group of products being affected by the lack of fibre and FNV values. These results suggest that while the missing fibre and FNV values is a weakness in the dataset, the interpretation of the data was unchanged, and it has not affected the overall results.

Data restrictions meant that time period covered changes between 2015 and 2018. Previous reformulation efforts made before 2015, for example as part of the salt reduction programme that began in 2006, will have been excluded. Using a wider historic time period may show that some companies who started reformulation efforts promptly have made more signficant changes than recorded here. Applying this method to datasets in multiple countries may offer insight into how companies are responding in countries with varying public health nutrition policies, for example voluntary reformulation targets in the UK compared to taxes on energy dense foods in Mexico [14] and mandatory warning labels in Chile [15].

The FSA/Ofcom nutrient profile model was used because it is designed for and used in the UK market and has been widely validated in terms of how its use may impact on dietary choices [16]. However, its original purpose was for the assessment of whether or not a product should be advertised to children, rather than to assess the nutritonal quality of a company’s product portfolio and classifying products as healthy and unhealthy, as it was used here. It would be possible to conduct similar analyses using other nutrient profiling models such as Health Star Rating [17] and Nutri Score [18], though since all rely on changes in the underlying nutrient composition differences between scoring systems are likley to be modest.

We combined the distributions of food and drink products by using a linear transformation that matched the distributions at two points–the 33rd and 66th percentile. The selection of the two matching points was arbitrary. Matching at different points (e.g. the 25th and 75th percentiles) would have produced a different linear transformation and hence different scores for drinks. This is an inevitable limitation associated with combining scores for companies with both food and drink profiles.

Comparisons with other studies.

There are a number of studies that have examined the nutrient content of foods sold in the UK over time. Previous studies have shown that voluntary salt reduction targets in the UK led to gradual and important changes in the salt content of foods between 2008–2011 [19,20], although a more recent report from Public Health England (PHE) suggests that only 28 of 52 of the 2017 salt reduction targets had been met in 2018 [4]. Two studies have shown that there were significant changes in the sugar content of soft drinks in the UK in context of the introduction of the Soft Drink Industry Levy [10,11]. The changes in the sugar content of soft drinks presented in these studies is in line with the results presented here, where the majority of the change in the volume sales of foods classified as healthy was driven by changes in the sugar content of soft drinks. Another study has also looked at the sugar content of foods between 2015 and 2018 and also presented findings by category and company [21].This study showed that 24 out of the top 50 companies (including retailers) in the UK had met Public Health England’s 5% sugar reduction targets, and that companies have made limited progress towards meeting this voluntary policy. Public Health England have themselves published a series of reports that monitor progress being made towards their 20% sugar reduction targets using both sales and composition data [3]. For example, they have shown that there was a -2.9% reduction in the sugar content of foods between 2015 and 2018 [3]. A strength of our study is that it applies a nutrient profiling model, whereas these analyses are based on single nutrients and are therefore not directly comparable. However, they generally show that there has been mixed progress by the food industry towards public health goals.

INFORMAS (International Network on Food and Obesity/NCD Research, Monitoring and Action Support) have produced a series of company scorecards that rank the world’s top 25 food companies, including supermarkets and quick-service restaurants, in a number of different areas, including product formulation [22]. While the scores are not based on quantitative analysis of the nutritional quality of companies’ products, they are based on business practices and companies’ commitments to nutrition-related policies, which is also important for monitoring food industry progress towards public health goals.

In 2019, the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) published its UK Product Profile [23]. It analysed the nutritional quality of 3069 products from the top five food categories of the world’s top 18 manufacturers in 2016. The ATNI study also applied the HSR nutrient profiling model. Nine companies (excluding Premier Foods, a UK-only company) included here were also included in the ATNI index. ATNI found that 31% of products were classified as healthy enough to advertise to children, compared to 45% in 2016 here. 22% of sales were classified as healthy, as opposed to 55% in this study. These differences are likely to be accounted for by the fact that ATNI had a lower coverage (this study included 3438 products for 10 companies in 2016, compared to 3069 products for 18 companies for ATNI). The main advantage of this study over ATNI’s UK Product Profile is that it includes four years’ worth of data and therefore examines trends over time, whereas ATNI’s study is a snapshot of a single year. The two studies are not directly comparable as the ATNI companies were defined at the global level, rather than UK level, and therefore the brands included under each company vary. However, the general ranking of the companies were similar between the two studies; Kraft Heinz and Danone were the two top scoring companies, and Nestlé, Mars and Mondelez were ranked at the bottom.

Another study similar to this one, conducted in India by Jones et al. 2017, used Euromonitor sales data and nutrition composition data for 943 products, collected from either the packet or company websites [24]. It applied the Health Star Rating (HSR) to analyse the nutritional quality of the top 11 packaged food manufacturers in India. The study found that the overall healthiness of products was low and that only 17% of products were considered healthy [24]. This is lower than the 45% of products classified as healthy in this study in 2016. These differences are to be expected as the Indian study excluded products like staples (bread, pasta, rice), and used a different nutrient profiling model (HSR). Despite covering a very different market, it demonstrates that a high proportion of products sold by leading companies in other countries are also unhealthy, and that this problem is not isolated to the UK.

Implications of research

This study shines a spotlight on the very small changes over time in the nutritional quality of food and drink products from the UKs largest food and beverage companies. While the proportion of volume sales increased from 44% to 53% over time, this change was entirely down to increased volume sales of bottled water, low/no calorie drinks and high-scoring fruit juices. The brands that saw the biggest changes to their scores over time were soft drinks. Once soft drinks were removed, the total volume sales of foods classified as healthy dropped to just 6% in 2018, down from 7% in 2015. This strongly suggests that PHE’s reformulation targets for sugar, salt and calories have not had a substantive impact on the nutritional quality of foods.

This method of ranking food and drink companies based on the nutritional quality of their product portfolios could be used to benchmark companies as a tool for ‘healthier’ impact investment. There is an increasing interest by investment banks and other financial organisations to assess what impact food companies are having on public health and how responsible their business practices are (known as impact investment) [25]. This has already been done in part by ATNI in collaboration with Shared Action [26] and INFORMAS [22].

Transparent monitoring of this kind also allows for greater consumer understanding of the work that is, or is not, being undertaken by companies. There is some evidence that pressure from the social environment is a factor influencing corporate behaviour [27], and public benchmarking exercises may increase pressure on companies to make meaningful change.

Conclusion

This study has demonstrated that it is feasible to monitor overall healthiness of company product portfolios over time. It shows that companies have made little change to the nutritional quality of their product portfolios, despite a few individual brand success stories, a factor which needs to be considered by policy makers when reviewing the current focus on single-nutrient reformulation programmes. Implementing a transparent monitoring and evaluation system such as this, would allow for targeted work with the companies to drive improvements in public health nutrition.

References
  1. 1.Abbafati C, Machado DB, Cislaghi B, Salman OM, Karanikolos M, McKee M, et al. Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet. 2020. pmid:33069326
  1. 2.Tedstone A, Targett V, Mackinlay B, Owtram G, Coulton V, Morgan K, et al. Calorie reduction: The scope and ambition for action [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2018 Mar 12]. Available from: www.gov.uk/phe.
  2. 3.Tedstone A, Targett V, Owtram G, Pyne V, Allen R, Bathrellou K, et al. Sugar Reduction: Achieving the 20% A technical report outlining progress to date, guidelines for industry, 2015 baseline levels in key foods and next steps [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2017 May 17]. Available from: www.gov.uk/phe.
  3. 4.Public Health England (PHE). Salt Reduction Targets for 2017 [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2019 Jul 9]. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/604338/Salt_reduction_targets_for_2017.pdf.
  4. 5.Euromonitor International. Euromonitor Passport: Packaged food and soft drinks, market statistics [Internet]. 2019 [cited 2019 Dec 3]. Available from: https://www.portal.euromonitor.com/portal/statisticsevolution/index.
  5. 6.WHO. WHO | Nutrient Profiling [Internet]. 2011 [cited 2019 Nov 26]. Available from: https://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/profiling/en/.
  6. 7.WHO. Nutrient Profiling Report of a WHO/IASO Technical Meeting [Internet]. 2010 [cited 2019 Nov 26]. Available from: https://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/profiling/WHO_IASO_report2010.pdf?ua=1.
  7. 8.Department of Health. Nutrient Profiling Technical Guidance [Internet]. 2011 [cited 2018 Aug 9]. Available from: http://www.dh.gov.uk/publications.
  8. 9.Department of Health. Nutrient Profiling Technical Guidance [Internet]. 2011 [cited 2019 Nov 26]. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/216094/dh_123492.pdf.
  9. 10.Bandy LK, Scarborough P, Harrington RA, Rayner M, Jebb SA. Reductions in sugar sales from soft drinks in the UK from 2015 to 2018. BMC Med. 2020. pmid:31931800
  10. 11.Scarborough P, Adhikari V, Harrington RA, Elhussein A, Briggs A, Rayner M, et al. Impact of the announcement and implementation of the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy on sugar content, price, product size and number of available soft drinks in the UK, 2015–19: A controlled interrupted time series analysis. PLoS Med. 2020. pmid:32045418
  11. 12.Food Standards Agency. Nutrition labelling | Food Standards Agency [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2019 Dec 6]. Available from: https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/nutrition-labelling.
  12. 13.UK Government. The Food Information Regulations 2014–2014–1855. 2014.
  13. 14.Batis C, Rivera JA, Popkin BM, Taillie LS. First-Year Evaluation of Mexico’s Tax on Nonessential Energy-Dense Foods: An Observational Study. PLoS Med. 2016 Jul;13(7):e1002057. pmid:27379797
  14. 15.Reyes M, Garmendia ML, Olivares S, Aqueveque C, Zacarías I, Corvalán C. Development of the Chilean front-of-package food warning label. [cited 2020 Nov 3]; Available from: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7118-1.
  15. 16.Cooper SL, Pelly FE, Lowe JB. Construct and criterion-related validation of nutrient profiling models: A systematic review of the literature. Vol. 100, Appetite. Academic Press; 2016. p. 26–40. pmid:26850312
  16. 17.Dunford EK, Ni Mhurchu C, Huang L, Vandevijvere S, Swinburn B, Pravst I, et al. A comparison of the healthiness of packaged foods and beverages from 12 countries using the Health Star Rating nutrient profiling system, 2013–2018. Obes Rev [Internet]. 2019 Nov 1 [cited 2021 May 28];20(S2):107–15. Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/obr.12879 pmid:31328385
  17. 18.Julia C, Hercberg S. Nutri-Score: evidence of the effective-ness of the French front-of-pack nutrition label. Ernahrungs Umschau. 2017;64(12):181–7.
  18. 19.He FJ, Brinsden HC, Macgregor GA. Salt reduction in the United Kingdom: A successful experiment in public health. Vol. 28, Journal of Human Hypertension. Nature Publishing Group; 2014. p. 345–52. pmid:24172290
  19. 20.Ni Mhurchu C, Capelin C, Dunford EK, Webster JL, Neal BC, Jebb SA, et al. Sodium content of processed foods in the United Kingdom: analysis of 44,000 foods purchased by 21,000 households. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Mar;93(3):594–600. pmid:21191142
  20. 21.Bandy LK, Scarborough P, Harrington RA, Rayner M, Jebb SA. The sugar content of foods in the UK by category and company: A repeated cross-sectional study, 2015–2018. Popkin BM, editor. PLOS Med [Internet]. 2021 May 18 [cited 2021 May 28];18(5):e1003647. Available from: https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003647. pmid:34003863
  21. 22.INFORMAS. BIA-Obesity | INFORMAS [Internet]. INFORMAS—Benchmarking food environments. 2018 [cited 2018 May 31]. Available from: http://www.informas.org/bia-obesity/#BIAObesity%7C0.
  22. 23.Access to Nutrition Initiative, Attard J, Cooper K, Gordon K, Chapman E, Vasquez I, et al. UK Product Profile 2019. 2019.
  23. 24.Jones A, Dunford E, Crossley R, Thout SR, Rayner M, Neal B. An evaluation of the healthiness of the Indian packaged food and beverage supply. Nutrients. 2017;9(10). pmid:28991201
  24. 25.Irving (Schroders) E, Crossman (Rathbone Greenbank) M. Sugar, obesity and noncommunicable disease: Investor expectations. 2017.
  25. 26.ATNI. ATNI partnership with ShareAction–Access to Nutrition [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 Dec 18]. Available from: https://accesstonutrition.org/project/atni-shareaction/.
  26. 27.van Erp J. Naming and Shaming of Corporate Offenders. In: Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer New York; 2014. p. 3209–17.

 

 

 

 

 

Learn about Essential Vegan Supplements and Vitamins to Include in Your Diet

Vegans no longer eat animal products, such as eggs, meat, dairy, and other foods with an animal source, including honey and gelatin. However, veganism is much more about food choices. If you opt to become a vegan for environmental, ethical, or health reasons, you do not use animal products such as wool, silk, fur, leather, and some cosmetics and soaps.

Your Journey to Improved Health

You must plan your vegan diet well for it to provide fulfillment to your beliefs and to enjoy a healthier and longer life. It should offer the following health benefits:

  • Lower blood pressure
  • Reduced cholesterol levels
  • Decreased intake of saturated fats
  • Enhanced vital nutrition
  • Curbed risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and some cancers
  • Healthier weight

You must pay special attention to your vegan lifestyle because you may not get enough vitamins and minerals, especially those found in animal products. You can avoid health risks by eating a balanced diet and focus on the following nutrients in your diet.

Iron

This mineral has a significant role in producing red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout your body. Excellent sources of iron include broccoli, beans, wheat, raisins, and tofu. You may also get your iron requirements from iron-fortified cereals. Non-meat sources are also rich in iron, but they are challenging to digest. Pair iron intake with vitamin C because the latter helps your body absorb the mineral.

Your doctor may suggest iron supplements if you have rock-bottom iron levels in your body. However, excessive iron intake can damage your gastrointestinal system and may result in iron toxicity. Accumulating iron in your organs can be fatal because it harms your brain and liver. Therefore, you must consult your doctor about consuming iron supplements.

Protein

Protein is another essential body component in your skin, organs, bones, and muscles. If you cannot eat dairy and meat, you must ensure that you consume amino acids, the building blocks of protein. You can get your protein requirement from peanut butter, nuts, grains, seeds, and legumes. For non-animal products, you can try soymilk and tofu. You should ensure that you have complete protein to maintain your metabolism.

Calcium

Your body needs calcium for strong bones and prevents osteoporosis, a disease known to weaken or break your bones. You can consume soybeans, bok choy, broccoli, and kale to get enough calcium. You may also drink calcium-fortified juices and soymilk or take calcium supplements.

Vitamin D

This vitamin is vital for your bone health and helps in calcium absorption. Moreover, it promotes bone growth. You may expose yourself to sunlight for about ten minutes thrice a week. If you wish to take more vitamin D, you can search for fortified products, such as cereals, rice milk, and soymilk.

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 prevents anemia and aids in the production of red blood cells. You can find it in fish, meat, shellfish, and dairy products. You may opt to eat fortified foods, including some cereals and soymilk. A word of caution from dissertation writing services: you must talk to your doctor about your Vitamin B12 supplement intake.

Zinc

Your immune system needs zinc, and you can find it in soy products, nuts, and beans. Phytates occurring in some cereals and legumes can hamper zinc absorption.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 improves your brain function and heart health. Oil and flaxseed meals are excellent sources, but you can also search for fortified food products from a plant source. According to an assignment writer, you can also check with your doctor about taking supplements containing omega-3.

Omega-3 fatty acids also provide the following benefits:

  • Helps in the neurodevelopment of infants and children
  • Avoids dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
  • Lowers the risk of heart disease
  • Reduces the risk of rheumatoid arthritis

Vitamin K

Vitamin K is helpful in wound healing and blood clotting. Vitamin K-1 is plentiful in several plants, including dark leafy green vegetables. On the other hand, Vitamin K-2 is present in egg yolks and some dairy products. You may get your Vitamin K-2 from fermented foods, such as natto, raw sauerkraut, vegan kimchi, unpasteurized kombucha, and plant-based kefir. Vitamin K deficiency may not be an issue because your gut bacteria can convert vitamin K-1 to vitamin K-2.

Iodine

Iodine makes your thyroid gland healthy, and you can find it in small amounts in plants, depending on the type of soil where they grow. You may also get your iodine requirement from seaweed. Eating sushi with seaweed a few times a week is sufficient for your iodine needs. You may wish to talk to your doctor about taking an iodine supplement.

Selenium

You only need small amounts of selenium to prevent cell damage caused by infection. However, according to some dissertation writers uk, you must speak with your doctor before taking a selenium supplement. Generally, you get the required amounts from cereals, bread, and other grains.

Beta-Carotene

Beta-carotene becomes vitamin A in your body, and you know that vitamin A plays a significant role in your reproduction, immune system, and vision. It also ensures your organs function properly. Try to talk to your physician about taking a supplement because you may not need it. You can get beta-carotene from the food you eat. Carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, winter squash, cantaloupe, and green leafy vegetables and fruits are excellent sources of bet-carotene.

Some Considerations for Excellent Health

You must make balanced choices if you want to enjoy a lifetime of exceptional health. You can shy away from junk foods and eat high-quality foods rich in nutrients. If you have nutritional issues, such as changes in your hair, skin, or weight, you must talk to your doctor. If you have diabetes and other special needs, you must consult your physician before jumpstarting your vegan diet to help you make outstanding nutritional choices.

About the Author

Emily Harrinson is oozing with positivity that is evident in her work as an influential editor in London. She started work in a big company as one of the professional paper writers in 2006 and has been producing prolific dissertation service since then. She reads books as a hobby and dabbles in music and sports too.

 

About NutriFusion

NutriFusion develops all‐natural fruit and vegetable powders that are nutrient dense for when you do not have access to fresh produce…and even when you do to improve your vitamin intake. Sourcing only whole, non-GMO foods, NutriFusion offers consumers a concentrated micronutrient and phytonutrient-rich food ingredient blends. With a farm-to-table philosophy, NutriFusion’s proprietary process stabilizes the nutrients from perishable fruits and vegetables, allowing a longer shelf life and access to vital nutrients.

NutriFusion fruit and/or vegetable powders are for use in foods, beverages, supplements, and pet foods.

NutriFusion can help! Visit us at www.nutrifusion.com.

ForwardFooding & FoodTech500

We are thrilled to announce that NutriFusion® ranked #53 of the top 500 companies worldwide in AgriFoodTechnology.  This was the second year in a row, as a finalist for this year’s @ForwardFooding #FoodTech500, the world’s first definitive list of the global entrepreneurial talent at the intersection between food, technology, and sustainability. With over 2000 applicants from over 60 countries, we are so pleased that our innovation within the food system has been recognized and are excited to share this news with you!

 

 Click HERE For a Complete List (PDF)→

 

NutriFusion®  just ranked #53 of the top 500 companies worldwide in AgriFoodTechnology and  was in the top 200 in 2019.

 

Click HERE To View on ForwardFooding →

Meat Consumption and the Link to Type 2 Diabetes

Meat.

It’s an industry that’s worked overtime to convince you to consume what they’re selling. Think “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner” and “Pork. The Other White Meat.” But study after study slams the salaciousness they’re selling.

Meat’s link to disease.

A recent Diabetes and Metabolism meta-analysis reported on the findings of almost 30 articles focused on the link between meat consumption and the risk for type 2 diabetes. The results were frightening: consuming red meat, processed meat, fish, and poultry can increase the risk for type 2 diabetes.

 

 

People who consumed the:

  • most total meat saw a 33% increased risk of type 2 diabetes
  • most processed meat saw a 25% increased risk for type 2 diabetes
  • most red meat 22% increased risk for type 2 diabetes

 

 

The deck is stacked against you.

Further analyses explored how adding meat to your diet increases risk. For example, adding 100 grams (a piece of meat approximately the size of a deck of cards) per day of total meat increases risk by 36%. Adding 100 grams of red meat increases risk by 31%. If you go one step further and add an additional 50 grams per day of processed meat, you increase your risk for diabetes by a generous 46%.

Why so high?

The authors attribute the associated risk to a list of diet “no-nos’”: saturated fat, dietary cholesterol, heme iron, and animal protein from meat. Serum levels of proteins and iron, plus increased weight associated with meat consumption, may also contribute to the risk.

Keep risk low.

A diet rich in fresh, high-quality fruits and vegetables both lowers the risk for type 2 diabetes and gives your body a necessary boost. Consuming natural, nitrate-rich foods can reduce blood pressure and improve overall circulatory health. Choose vegetables with naturally high nitrate content, rather than those with nitrate manufacturers have added during processing.

We can help.

At NutriFusion, we use first-grade, fresh and high-quality fruits and vegetables to create a nutrient dense powder full of natural vitamins and minerals. High quality food and beverage processors are adding the nutrient dense powder to their products to provide the nutrition bodies need.

We believe in a farm-to-table approach. But, even when you don’t have access to quality fruits and vegetables, you can achieve the necessary nutrition via our quality supplements. Our ingredients are plant based and never include synthetics, just real food from nature to you.

Inspired by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine www.pcrm.org

Julian’s Recipe Partners with NutriFusion® to Add Natural Vitamins from Six Vegetables

Julian’s Recipe, LLC, a European inspired, gourmet waffle, artisan bread and snack company, has announced it is partnering with NutriFusion® to add the essential nutrients from six vegetables to their latest products. The Julian’s Recipe Savory Potato Waffles marks the first product launch with the GrandFusion® vegetable blend for the company. The new potato waffle aims to be a healthier option than traditional potato products like hash browns.

“We are focused on developing more products with “better-for-you” nutritional profiles for people of all ages”, says Founder and R&D lead of Julian’s, Alex Dzieduszycki. “We believe our Savory Potato Waffles will fill an important gap in functional foods, and give people of all ages a healthy, frozen food with a nutraceutical benefit.”

NutriFusion, LLC has been producing fruit and vegetable based nutrient blends for food, beverage, supplement, and pet brands since 2008. The partnership with Julian’s Recipe showcases the uniqueness of the GrandFusion® Six Vegetable Nutrient Blend. With around 100 mg of GrandFusion®, Julian’s is able to deliver 20% RDI of 6 vitamins including vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin B1 (Thiamin), vitamin B6.

NutriFusion, LLC has been producing fruit and vegetable based nutrient blends for food, beverage, supplement, and pet brands since 2008. The partnership with Julian’s Recipe showcases the uniqueness of the GrandFusion® Six Vegetable Nutrient Blend. With around 100 mg of GrandFusion®, Julian’s is able to deliver 20% RDI of 6 vitamins including vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin B1 (Thiamin), vitamin B6.

William Grand, Founder and CEO of NutriFusion® had this to say, “We are thrilled to see frozen waffles in the market using GrandFusion® natural vitamins. Julian’s Recipe is on the right mission with the new Savory Potato Waffles. Julian’s Recipe is an innovator and we are excited to see more of their products with nutrients from fruit and vegetables. As more brand partners add our nutrients, we hope to see consumers demand companies to switch from synthetic alternatives.”

See the full press release here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/julians-recipe-adds/nutrifusion-vitamins

nutrifusion download R&D resource kit

NutriFusion® & Amazing Grains Form Partnership

Organic Sourced Food Ingredient Manufacturer, NutriFusion® Announces Agreement with Canadian Cereal Supplier, Amazing Grains

NutriFusion®, a provider of natural nutrition and phytonutrient products for food manufacturers, today announced an agreement with Amazing Grains, a Canadian cereal supplier and mix blend food company.

Amazing Grains is incorporating NutriFusion’s® whole organic, Non-GMO concentrated nutrient-rich food blend, GrandFusion®, an ingredient sourced from fresh fruits and vegetables void of any synthetic additives, excipients or preservatives. Incorporating NutriFusion’s® flagship product, GrandFusion® will allow Amazing Grains to provide their nutrition enhanced products to food processors throughout North America adding natural nutrients to a wide variety of finished food products.

“NutriFusion® and Amazing Grains share a mutual interest and concern for providing consumers healthier food options,” said William Grand, Founder and CEO, NutriFusion®. “Working with food ingredient suppliers like Amazing Grains that care about the ingredients that go into their products is in tandem with our mission as a company.”

Amazing Grains will incorporate GrandFusion® into its products that will be licensed to a variety of food manufacturers who will use the brand in conjunction with their own private label brands and offer products ranging from breakfast cereals, grain blends, muffins granola bars, brownie bars, energy bars, pita bread and chips, crackers, cookies, pizza, salad dressings, yogurt and pet food snacks.


NutriFusion® at IFT 2015: Location and Hours
To sample NutriFusion® nutrient rich powders and blends, and meet with company executives, please visit booth #658 at McCormick Place South in Chicago, Illinois. The expo hours are: Sunday, July 12 from Noon – 5 p.m.; Monday, July 13 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Tuesday, July 14 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Currently North America is the largest market serviced by NutriFusion®, and an established distribution pipeline extends to Australia and New Zealand. NutriFusion’s® four key sales markets include the food, beverage, nutritional supplement and pet food/treats industries.

Beyond Meat Adds Flagship NutriFusion® Product Lines

Organic Food Ingredient Manufacturer, NutriFusion® Announces Agreement with Beyond Meat

NutriFusion®, a provider of natural nutrition and phytonutrient products for food manufacturers, today announced an agreement with Beyond Meat®, a leading developer of plant-based products that replicate the texture and taste of meat.

Beyond Meat® is incorporating NutriFusion’s® whole organic, Non-GMO concentrated nutrient-rich food ingredient, GrandFusion® vegetable blend into its Beast Burgers and Beastly Sliders food products. It was chosen for its ability to help Beyond Meat® achieve its nutritional goals with ingredients coming only from natural sources. Beyond Meat’s Beast Burgers and Beastly Sliders are both 100 percent plant-based and incorporate all the protein and iron of beef packed with antioxidants, ALA omegas, calcium, Vitamins B-6, B-12 and potassium. The Beast line is 100% gluten-free, soy-free, and made without GMO ingredients.

NutriFusion’s farm-to-table philosophy allows the company to make rich whole-food nutritional blends from fresh fruits and vegetables void of any synthetic additives, excipients or preservatives. GrandFusion® allows food processors to add natural nutrients to a wide variety of finished food products. It is an all-natural, patented blend of fruits and/or vegetables that can significantly increase the nutritional profile of food, beverage and supplement products. Rich in antioxidants and an excellent source of Vitamins A, C, D, E, B1, B2, GrandFusion® supplies the complex nutrients and phytonutrients from fresh fruits and vegetables and adds the nutrients from as much as two servings of vegetables to every food product, without affecting taste or functionality of foods.

“Beyond Meat is a very progressive food company that matches our goal to address a marketplace that continues to evolve toward more educated consumers who care what ingredients go into the food they eat and are demanding healthier options while still looking for the convenience factor,” said William Grand, Founder and CEO, NutriFusion®. “Beyond Meat has created two amazing products that will appeal to a wide range of consumers because of the outstanding nutritional benefits as well as the taste, which sends a clear signal to consumers that they are not buying just another veggie burger.”

Beyond Meat® is a privately held company with high-profile investors that share the company’s passion and drive for changing the way the world gets its protein. Investors include, Bill Gates, Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, investment firm Kleiner-Perkins Caufield & Byers, Seth Goldman, the founder of Honest Tea, and the Humane Society of the United States, among others. Beyond Meat’s Beast Burgers, Beastly Sliders and other all natural food products are sold in national retail grocers.

“We are building ‘The Future of Protein’ and the Beast Burger and Beastly Sliders are significant steps in that direction,” said Ethan Brown, co-founder and CEO, Beyond Meat. “NutriFusion® made it possible to meet our nutritional goals without using synthetic ingredients, which is a benefit that consumers value.”

Currently North America is the largest market serviced by NutriFusion®, and an established distribution pipeline extends to Australia and New Zealand. NutriFusion’s® four key sales markets include the food, beverage, nutritional supplement and pet food/treats industries.


About Beyond Meat
Founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown and Brent Taylor, Beyond Meat® is a privately held company with high-profile investors that share our passion and drive for changing the way the world gets its protein. Beyond Meat has been the recipient of a number of awards and national press. Recently, Fast Company named Beyond Meat the World’s Most Innovative Company in Food for 2014 and the company headlined an in-depth article in the New York Times about the importance and momentum of plant-based protein.

[button link=”/contact-us/” color=”default” size=”medium” type=”flat” shape=”round” target=”_self” title=”” gradient_colors=”|” gradient_hover_colors=”|” accent_color=”” accent_hover_color=”” bevel_color=”” border_width=”1px” shadow=”{{shadow}}” icon=”fa-user” icon_divider=”no” icon_position=”left” modal=”” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ alignment=”left” class=”” id=””]Contact NutriFusion[/button]

NutriFusion® Launches Two New Product Lines

Organic Food Ingredient Manufacturer, NutriFusion® Announces New Line of Food & Beverage Products

NutriFusion®, a provider of diverse and complex natural nutrition and phytonutrient products for food manufacturers, today announced four new products – GrandFusion® Vegan Protein, GrandFusion® Complete, NutriFusion® Lift, and NutriStix® Antioxidant. NutriFusion® will introduce their new nutrient rich food and beverage products at the 2015 Natural Products Expo West/Engredea tradeshow in Anaheim, California.

NutriFusion’s® GrandFusion® Vegan Protein is an all-natural GMO, gluten and lactose free powder. The versatile all-natural powder is as an alternative to anabolic steroids and can be added to drinks, smoothies, sprinkled over food, used in baking or added to nutrition bars for an extra boost of protein.

GrandFusion® Complete is a complete package meal replacement powder containing plant-derived Omega 3, 6, 9, and Edestin and Albumin proteins. The high fiber, easy to digest, vegan safe and low glycemic load powder is rich in zinc, iron, and magnesium and can be added to juice drinks, milkshakes, soups, and cereals. GrandFusion® Complete comes in various flavors – or flavorless for both consumers and food processors.

New to the beverage space, NutriFusion’s® Lift energy drink mix powder and NutriStix® Antioxidant drink supplement powder both are packaged for ease of transport for active on-the-go consumers. NutriFusion® Lift takes an alternative “energy shot” approach working at the cellular level to restore spent energy and renew energy stores via  an immune system supportive pre-formulated blend that includes Vitamins B6, B12, Niacin, Folic Acid, Magnesium, and Potassium. NutriStix® Antioxidantis a natural nutritional water enhancer that is bio-absorbable, possessing a high ORAC value and enriched with antioxidant-rich vitamins from fruits and vegetables.

“There is an increased interest among food manufacturers and processors around functional foods, specifically to offer more nutritional and protein rich foods,” said NutriFusion® CEO and Founder, William Grand. “During Natural Products Expo West, the NutriFusion® team looks forward to showing food manufacturers how easy it is to incorporate our organic blends to significantly boost overall nutritional value of processed food and beverages.”


NutriFusion® at Expo West/Engredea: Location and Hours
To sample NutriFusion® nutrient rich powders and blends, and meet with company executives, please visit booth #339-Hall A at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Show floor hours are: Friday, March 6 – Saturday, March 7 from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sunday, March 8 from 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Currently North America is the largest market serviced by NutriFusion®, and an established distribution pipeline extends to Australia and New Zealand. NutriFusion’s® four key sales markets include the food, beverage, nutritional supplement and pet food/treats industries.

[button link=”/contact-us/” color=”default” size=”medium” type=”flat” shape=”round” target=”_self” title=”” gradient_colors=”|” gradient_hover_colors=”|” accent_color=”” accent_hover_color=”” bevel_color=”” border_width=”1px” shadow=”{{shadow}}” icon=”fa-user” icon_divider=”no” icon_position=”left” modal=”” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ alignment=”left” class=”” id=””]Contact Us[/button]