In nutritionally adequate diets, the frequency of consumption of foods from the 4 SENS* classes follows a hierarchical progression, from Class-1 (high frequency) to Class-4 (low frequency). *Système d’Etiquetage Nutritionnel Simplifié
It is expected from nutrient profiling systems that they classify individual foods according to their contribution to healthy and nutritionally adequate diet.The SENS is a 4-classes nutrient profiling system proposed as a basis for a simplified labelling system. It is derived from the SAIN,LIM system initially developed by the French Food Standard Agency. The present study aims at validating the SENS nutrient profiling system by examining its ability to classify foods in a hierarchical order according to their contribution to nutritionally adequate diets.
Materials and Methods
The 1192 foods of the French food composition database were assigned into the 4 classes defined by the SENS. Foods with the most/least favourable nutrient profiles were in Class-1 and Class-4, respectively. For each individual diet consumed by 20-75 year old adults in the nationally representative INCA2 dietary survey (n=1719 observed diets), an optimized diet (i.e. iso-energetic, nutritionally adequate and as close as possible from the subject’s observed food choices) was designed with individual diet modelling. Each optimized diet respected the WHO recommendations for proteins, total carbohydrates, free sugars (<10% of total energy), total lipids, saturated fatty acids (SFA, <10% of total energy), cholesterol and essential fatty acids), the Nordic recommendation for sodium, and the French recommendations for fibers, 10 vitamins, 9 minerals. The contribution of foods from the 4 SENS classes to total energy was assessed before and after the optimization process, for each individual diet.
Results
On average, the optimization induced a 9.2 points increase of energy from Class-1 foods (20.5% vs 29.7% in observed vs optimized diets, p<0.001), a 4.4 points increase from Class-2 foods (26.4% vs 30.8%, p<0.001), a 2.3 points decrease from class-3 foods (25.6% vs 23.3 %, p<0.001) and a 11.2 points decrease from Class-4 foods (27.4% vs 16.2%, p<0.001). The increase of energy from Class-1 and Class-2 was verified for 96% and 73%, respectively, of the adult sample and the decrease of energy from Class-3 and Class-4 was confirmed for 63% and 94%, respectively.
Conclusion
The shift in food intakes needed to reach nutritional adequacy – namely substantial increase, moderate increase, moderate decrease and important decrease of foods from classes 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively -followed a hierarchical progression according to the 4 SENS classes Therefore, the SENS nutrient profiling system is a relevant tool to classify foods in a hierarchical way according to their contribution to nutritionally adequate diets, suggesting that it could be useful in the context of simplified nutritional labelling in Europe.
Keywords:- Diet modelling
- Nutrient profiling
- Food labelling
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