Processed foods from the consumer’s perspective
- 09.12.2024
- English Articles
- Jevana Röhl
- Finnja Straten
- Urte Schleyerbach
- Sabine Bornkessel
Peer reviewed / Manuscript (original) submitted: 14 November 2023; revision accepted: 10 April 2024
Introduction
Food processing makes access to safe, affordable and tasty food possible all year round [1]. Achieving these quality criteria requires a wide range of technologies and processing methods that have different effects on the food – altering it to varying degrees, from slightly to drastically [2–3]. The result of this is that the nutritional quality of an unprocessed product often differs from its processed counterpart. The effects of processing can be nutritionally beneficial or detrimental [2]. On the one hand, processing can increase the digestibility of food components and also increase the bioavailability of nutrients. On the other hand, processing can decrease nutrient content [4]. Furthermore, the application of heat can produce harmful compounds such as acrylamide or heterocyclic amines [4–5].
Numerous studies have indicated that high intake of highly processed foods is associated with an increased risk of various diseases such as metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality [6–7]. For this reason, various classification systems have been developed in recent years in an attempt to assess the nutritional quality of processed foods. Despite these efforts, classification is still the subject of scientific debate and there is currently no generally recognized system. ...
Abstract
The various systems for classifying processed foods attempt to assess the nutritional quality of foods based on their degree of processing, but no system yet exists that takes all the different aspects into account. Consumer perception of processed foods is an important aspect to take into consideration because it is consumers who decide whether to purchase or eat these foods. This preliminary study surveyed consumers to investigate what they look for when shopping for food, what is important to them in processed food and what characteristics they associate with processed food. The study discusses the extent to which indicators used in the IARC, NOVA, SIGA, IFIC and UNC classification systems correspond to the attitudes of the consumers surveyed towards processed foods.
