Abstract
Abstract
Background
Mislabeling is a type of fraud, that can lead to major health concerns, especially when used on staple foods like bread. This study aimed to assess the compliance of nutrition claims on pre-packaged Pita bread in Mount Lebanon with national (LIBNOR; NL 661:2017) and international (CODEX; CAC/GL -2–1985) standards.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted and Lebanese bread samples (n = 75) were collected from all the registered bakeries in Mount Lebanon directorate (n = 25). The claim compliance assessment was based on values of the nutrition facts panel and standard nutrient analyses, following official methods.
Results
Of all assessed breads, 84% carried nutrition claims, and 25.3% carried health claims. Among nutrition claims, 70.7% had non-addition claims, 56.0% had nutrient content claims, and 1.3% had comparative claims. The results showed a high prevalence of nutrition claims with majority non-compliant. Based on the nutrition facts panel, only 32.4% of the sugar related claims, 45.5% of the fiber claims, and 54.4% of salt claims were eligible to make those statements. Based on the chemical nutrient analyses, only 47.0% of sugar claims, 16.1% of fiber claims, and 37.5% of salt claims were compliant. All the claims related to protein (n = 7) were compliant.
Conclusions
These results suggest the urgent need to develop clear guidelines for the effective implementation of the current standard; in order to prevent mislead consumers from making poor decisions at the point-of-sale, which might affect their overall health and efforts towards proper nutrition.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health,Nutrition and Dietetics,Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism,Medicine (miscellaneous)
Reference61 articles.
1. Bauer UE, Briss PA, Goodman RA, Bowman BA. Prevention of chronic disease in the 21st century: elimination of the leading preventable causes of premature death and disability in the USA. Lancet. 2014;384(9937):45–52.
2. World Health O. Burden of Non communicable diseases in the Easter Mediterranean region 2015. Available from: https://bit.ly/2Irf72E.
3. Sussman R, McMahon A, Neale E. An audit of the nutrition and health claims on breakfast cereals in supermarkets in the IIIawarra region of Australia. Nutrients. 2019;11:1604.
4. Davidović DB, Tomić DV, Paunović KZ, Vasiljević ND, Jorga JB. Nutrition labelling of pre-packaged foods in Belgrade, Serbia: current situation. Public Health Nutr. 2015;18(11):1969–78.
5. CAC/GL1–1979. General guidelines on claims. Available from: http://www.fao.org/3/Y2770E/y2770e05.htm.
Cited by
1 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献