Five year trends in the serve size, energy, and sodium contents of New Zealand fast foods: 2012 to 2016
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The nutritional composition of foods and beverages consumed away from the home has important implications for population health. Our objective was to determine if the serve size, energy, and sodium contents of fast foods sold at chain restaurants in New Zealand (NZ) changed between 2012 and 2016. METHODS: Serve size and nutrient data were collected in annual cross-sectional surveys of all products sold at 10 major fast food chains. Changes over time may occur due to alterations in product availability or individual product reformulation. Linear regression adjusting for food group and chain was used to estimate overall changes in serve size and nutrients. Random effects mixed models were used to estimate reformulation changes on same products available for two or more years. RESULTS: Across all products (n = 5468) increases were observed in mean serve size (+ 9 (3, 15) g, + 5%), energy density (+ 54 (27, 81) kJ/100 g, + 6%), energy per serve (+ 178 (125, 231) kJ, + 14%), and sodium per serve (+ 55 (24, 87) mg, + 12%). Sodium density did not change significantly. Four of 12 food groups (Desserts, Pizza, Sandwiches, and Salads) and four of 10 fast food chains (Domino's, Hell Pizza, Pizza Hut, and Subway) displayed large, undesirable changes for three or more (of five) outcomes (≥10%; p < 0.05). One food group (Asian) and one chain (St Pierre's) displayed large, desirable changes for two or more outcomes. The only significant reformulation change was a drop in sodium density (- 22 (- 36, - 8) mg/100 g, - 7%). CONCLUSIONS: The serve size and energy density of NZ fast food products has increased significantly over the past 5 years. Lower sodium concentration in new and reformulated products has been offset by overall increases in serve size. Continued monitoring and development and implementation of Government-led targets for serve size and nutrient content of new and existing fast food products are required.
Date Issued
2018-07-09
Date Acceptance
2018-06-26
Citation
Nutrition Journal, 2018, 17 (1)
ISSN
1475-2891
Publisher
BioMed Central
Journal / Book Title
Nutrition Journal
Volume
17
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s). 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to
the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to
the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29983114
PII: 10.1186/s12937-018-0373-7
Subjects
Energy intake
Fast foods
Portion size
Sodium
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
ARTN 65