Nutrient Profiling Model

Nutrient profiling is the science of categorising foods according to their nutritional composition for reasons related to preventing disease and promoting health. A nutrient profiling model operationalises this idea as a transparent scoring algorithm: each food is awarded points for components considered detrimental in excess (energy, saturated fat, sugars, sodium) and points for beneficial components (fruit, vegetable and nut content, fibre, protein), and the net score is thresholded to classify the food as 'healthier' or 'less healthy'. The best-known example is the UK Food Standards Agency / Ofcom model (the WXYfm model developed by Rayner, Scarborough and colleagues), adopted in 2007 to restrict television advertising of less-healthy foods to children and later adapted by the WHO and as the underlying engine of front-of-pack schemes. Scarborough, Rayner and Stockley set out the systematic, transparent development process that distinguishes a defensible model from an ad hoc one.