Is the nutritional quality of Portuguese processed foods a cause of concern from a public health point of view?

Abstract publicado em: Translational Research and Innovation in Human and Health Science, Annals of Medicine. 2018;50(Sup1):S18-S119, doi:10.1080/07853890.2018.1427445Introduction: Family lifestyle has changed greatly over the years, and nowadays there is a lack of time to prepare meals amongst other factors. Therefore, processed foods are a convenient alternative for several consumers. However, this type of foods is usually recognized as a source of salt, saturated and trans fatty acids, which are linked with the presence of several chronic diseases, namely obesity, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to evaluate the nutritional quality of processed foods. This work was performed under the project PTranSALT which aims to evaluate the salt, total fat, and individual fatty acids profile of processed foods widely available in the Portuguese market in order to address further challenges in this area of research, as well as to update the current situation in Portugal, since for example for trans fatty acids, the last update was performed 30 years ago. Materials and Methods: Between 2013 and 2016, 260 foods from different food categories (cookies, biscuits and wafers; potato and potato-products; ready-to-eat meals; bakery products; nuts and oilseeds; fast-food; snacks; cereal products; and sauces) were acquired in retail stores, supermarkets, food chains, restaurants and take away in Portugal. Total fat content was determined by acid hydrolysis and Soxhlet extraction with petroleum ether [1]. Fatty acids methyl esters were obtained by cold transesterification and analysed by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection [2] and the salt content was determined by Charpentier-Volhard’s method [2]. Besides the determination of salt, fat and individual fatty acids profile of the selected processed foods, different approaches were conducted: a) comparisons among supermarket and commercial brands, but also among similar products from different commercial brands; b) comparisons among similar foods with and without gluten and/or sugar and sugar-free; c) accuracy of labeled nutrition declaration; d) analysis of the contribution of processed foods for the daily intake of the analyzed nutrients and estimation of potential health benefits/risks; e) effect of cooking methods on the nutritional quality of foods; and f) establishment of further priority intervention areas. Results: Regarding the salt content, the snacks, the fast-food, the sauces and the ready-to-eat meals had a significant higher amount than the other categories. The saturated fatty acids content was higher in bakery products (Mean 7.07 g/100 g), cookies, biscuits and wafers (Mean 9.11 g/100 g), and in the snacks group (Mean 7.83 g/100 g). The highest levels of trans fatty acids were found in the fast-food group (Mean 0.19 g/100 g), followed by the snacks (Mean 0.09 g/100 g), potato and potato-products (Mean 0.07 g/100 g) and bakery products categories. Considerable differences were found between similar foods from different commercial brands and/or retail markets. Gluten-free cookies have higher fat content than cookies with gluten, but for salt the opposite was observed. Concerning the contribution for the daily intake, one of the obtained results was for curd cheese pie (one portion=193 g) which can reach 45% of the recommended value for salt intake. Discussion and Conclusions: Up to now food industry has developed efforts to decrease the salt and fat content of some food products. However, there are still foods with high salt and saturated fat content, and from a nutritional point of view this should be a priority area of intervention. Regarding trans fatty acids a significant decrease has been observed for the foods in which it is possible to perform an evolution of the last 30 years. The obtained results within our study are an effective assessment of the current status of the nutritional quality of Portuguese processed foods which will be important for further reformulation strategies and to monitor progress in the next years.This work was funded by INSA project “PTranSALT” (2012DAN828). Tânia Gonçalves Albuquerque acknowledges PhD fellowship (SFRH/BD/99718/2014) funded by FCT, FSE and MEC.N/