Concordancia del etiquetado nutricional de productos procesados y ultraprocesados de sabor dulce de tres supermercados de la ciudad de Cuenca con el RTE INEN 022 (2R). Cuenca, 2021

Abstract

Background: Nutritional labeling is an informative tool that allows the consumer to know the nutritional characteristics present on the label of a Processed or Ultra-processed Food Product (APUP). Objective: The concordance of the content of the nutritional labeling of processed and ultra-processed sweet-tasting products from three supermarkets in the city of Cuenca with the RTE INEN 022 (2R), Cuenca, 2021 was determined. Methods: quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study. A database of 1200 sweet-tasting APUP products was analyzed. The analyzes were carried out in the SPSS version 15 program, the concordance and probability of inconsistencies in the nutritional traffic light label was determined. Results: 9.8%, 11.0% and 6.2% inconsistencies were reported in the components of sugars, fats and salt (sodium) respectively. An almost perfect concordance was observed in the indicators of sugars, fats, but only in the concentrations low (0.878; 0.884) and high (0.871; 0.856) respectively and in the indicator of salt (sodium), in the concentration low (0.900) and medium (0.867). It was found that the medium concentration is more likely to present inconsistencies in relation to the low concentration. Conclusions: There are inconsistencies between the reported and expected sugar, fat and salt (sodium) indicators of the APUP. It is necessary to develop a more specific critical nutrient nutritional information system that allows the consumer to have more accurate information on the amount of free sugars, fats and salt (sodium) added to the product.