Abstract
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: In 2020, the National Nutrition Committee in Saudi Arabia launched a nutrient profile model, aiming to support the classification of foods and beverages in line with successful international approaches. The objective of this study was to compare the existing Saudi Arabian nutrient profile model to other established models to help inform diet-related policies in the country. METHODS: Packaged food and beverage data were obtained from Mintel's Global New Products Database. Products were evaluated under the Saudi Arabian nutrient profile model, Nutri-Score and Chile's high fat, salt, sugar (HFSS) model. Agreement among the three nutrient profile models was examined using Fleiss' kappa statistic. RESULTS: There were 6940 products used in analysis. All three models showed a low proportion of eligible/healthy products, with 26% for Chile's HFSS model, 28% for Nutri-Score and 25% for the Saudi Arabian nutrient profile model. There was substantial agreement (86%; k = 0.74) among all three models examined, with the highest agreement between the Saudi Arabian nutrient profile model and the Nutri-Score model. CONCLUSIONS: All three demonstrated a sub-optimal level of overall healthiness in the Saudi Arabian packaged food and beverage supply, with <30% of products under all models considered "healthy". Given the substantial agreement among all three nutrient profiling approaches examined, it is likely that Saudi Arabia could benefit from the use of a categorical approach to nutrient profiling such as the Nutri-Score model, which allows for a more scaled view on product healthiness compared to a binary approach.