Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
ResearchResearch and Practice InnovationsUse of Caloric and Noncaloric Sweeteners in US Consumer Packaged Foods, 2005-2009
Section snippets
Nutrition Facts Label and Ingredient Information for Each Uniquely Barcoded Food
The 2007 and 2010 versions of the commercial Gladson Nutrition Database20 have national brands and private-label consumer packaged goods items at the Universal Product Codes (UPCs) level with data on the Nutrition Facts label and full ingredients lists.21 Per the Food and Drug Administration requirements, the Nutrition Facts label needs to include serving measurement, total calories, calories from fat, total fat, saturated fat, trans fats, total sugars, total carbohydrate, protein, dietary
Use of Sweeteners in Unique US Consumer Packaged Goods
From the commercial databases described here, we identified 85,451 unique processed and packaged food and beverage products that were not raw or single-ingredient foods (see Table 1). Among these, 75% contain some sweetener (68% with caloric sweetener only, 1% with noncaloric sweetener only, 6% with both caloric sweetener and noncaloric sweetener).
Among vegetable juices (n=230), 22% have no sweeteners, 69% contain caloric sweetener only, <1% contain noncaloric sweetener only, and 8% contain
Discussion
To our knowledge, this is the first study to report on the extent of sweetener use in the US consumer packaged goods food supply. Three quarters of uniquely formulated consumer packaged foods and beverages in the United States contain sweeteners, of which 73.5% contains caloric sweetener and 1.5% contains noncaloric sweetener. From 2005 to 2009, 77% of the calories from consumer packaged goods purchased in the United States contain caloric sweetener and 3% contain noncaloric sweetener; and 73%
Conclusions
Given that 77% of all calories purchased from consumer packaged goods in the United States from 2005 to 2009 period contain caloric sweetener, and that there is a trend toward purchase of noncaloric sweetener−containing products, additional research and regulatory focus on these topics are needed. Although we have not yet derived the proportion of calories from caloric sweetener, this article lends support to what is seen by the dietetics profession as a critical issue—excessive consumption of
Acknowledgements
We thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant 67506) and the National Institutes of Health (R01 HL104580) for financial support. We also wish to thank Izabela Annis for exception assistance with the data management and programming, Frances L. Dancy for administrative assistance, and Tom Swasey for graphics support for assistance in this effort.
S. W. Ng is a research assistant professor, Department of Nutrition, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
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S. W. Ng is a research assistant professor, Department of Nutrition, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
M. M. Slining is a research assistant professor, Department of Nutrition, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
B. M. Popkin is a professor, Department of Nutrition, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
FUNDING/SUPPORT Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant 67506) and the National Institutes of Health (R01 HL104580).
STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.