ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Food Policy and Economics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1636713
This article is part of the Research TopicIndustry and Individuals: Branding, Labelling, and Marketing of Food Products: Volume IIView all 4 articles
Evolution of the nutritional quality of packaged food supply in low-and middle-income countries following the implementation of a front-of-pack labelling scheme
Provisionally accepted
Marie Tassy1,2*
Andreas Rytz3
Alison L. Eldridge2
Tsz Ning Mak2
Frank Ekow Atta Hayford4
Edith J.M. Feskens1- 1Division of Human Nutrition and Health, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
- 2Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Nestlé Research, Société des Produits Nestlé, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 3Nestlé Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Nestlé Research, Société des Produits Nestlé, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 4Department of Dietetics, School of Biomedical and Allied Health Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
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As packaged foods consumption increases in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), certain governments have introduced front-of-pack labelling (FOPL) schemes to promote healthier food choices. This study assesses the evolution and nutritional quality of packaged foods in LMICs from 2015 to 2023 and examines trends in countries where FOPLs have been implemented. On-pack information from products in the top 20 packaged food categories was retrieved from the Mintel Global New Product Database (2015-2023) in 19 LMICs. The number of new products introduced and median content of energy, sugars, sodium, saturated fatty acids (SFA), protein, and fiber were analyzed by product category, country, region and type of FOPL implemented. Evolution of the percentage of products with an improved nutritional content was compared from 2015-2017 to 2021-2023. Our findings indicate that from 2015 to 2023, the percentage of packaged meat and coffee products increased in LMICs, while more indulgent products such as cookies declined. The nutritional quality of products improved, particularly towards a reduction in total sugars and an increase in protein content. The implementation of FOPL was associated with further reductions in total sugars, and, depending on the type of scheme implemented, with reduction in sodium. These findings offer insights on the food environment in LMICs undergoing a nutrition transition, and on howcertain food policies can be associated with reformulation of packaged foods in those countries.
Keywords: Food Supply, Nutrient content, low- and middle-income countries, front-of-packlabelling, Nutrient profiling
Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 08 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tassy, Rytz, Eldridge, Mak, Hayford and Feskens. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Marie Tassy, marie.tassy@rd.nestle.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.