The Study
Comparison of nutrient profiling models for assessing the nutritional quality of foods: a validation study
This study didn’t test if one food label system makes people healthier — it just checked how often different label systems agree with each other. Think of it like comparing two different ways of grading a test: one says 'A' and another says 'B' — this study just counts how often they match, not which one is right.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
Scientists tested five different food rating systems to see how well they agree with a trusted one (Ofcom) at telling if food is healthy or not.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 544 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — if a country uses HCST or PAHO, it might wrongly label healthy foods like eggs and beans as unhealthy, which could mislead consumers and policies.
- 2FSANZ and Nutri-Score agreed with Ofcom 90%+ of the time; HCST and PAHO disagreed 33-37% of the time — especially on eggs, legumes, and fruit juice.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The British Journal of Nutrition
Year
2018
Authors
T. Poon, M. Labonté, C. Mulligan, Mavra Ahmed, K. Dickinson, M. L’Abbé
Related Content
Claims (5)
The FSANZ and Ofcom nutrient scoring systems classify the healthiness of packaged foods in nearly identical ways across more than 15,000 Canadian products, with small differences occurring only in how they treat fats, oils, and potatoes due to different rules for including fruits, vegetables, and fats.
The WHO EURO model and the Ofcom system classify the healthiness of packaged foods in Canada differently in 22% of cases because the WHO model automatically labels fruit juices and some dairy products as less healthy, even when their nutrient content is similar to other foods.
Two different systems for rating the healthiness of packaged foods in Canada disagree on one-third of products because one system rates foods high in natural sodium as unhealthy based on calorie content, while the other rates them based on sodium amount per fixed weight.
Nutri-Score and Ofcom classify the nutritional quality of Canadian packaged foods similarly in most cases, but they disagree in 8.3% of cases, especially for fruit juices and dairy products, because they use different rules to weigh energy, sugar, and fruit content.
The Health Canada Surveillance Tool and the Ofcom system disagree on the healthiness of over 15,000 packaged foods in Canada, with nearly four in ten foods rated differently because HCST ignores protein and uses serving-size thresholds instead of standard 100-gram measurements, causing healthy foods like eggs and legumes to be incorrectly labeled as less nutritious.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.