Lack of nutrient declarations and low nutritional quality of pre-packaged foods sold in Guatemalan supermarkets

Objective: To assess the presence of nutrition declarations and nutritional quality in pre-packaged food products sold in Guatemala. Design: We photographed nutrition labels of pre-packaged foods. We extracted information about declaration of energy, total/saturated/trans-fats, total/added sugars and Na content (critical nutrients). We classified all products according to their degree of processing (NOVA classification) and nutritional quality (PAHO and WHO-Europe nutrient profile models). Setting: Pre-packaged foods for sale in seven supermarkets in Guatemala City. Participants: This study did not involve human subjects. Results: We assessed 3459 pre-packaged foods, including 80 % ultra-processed, 7 % processed and 13 % unprocessed/minimally processed foods or culinary ingredients. Nutritional information was available in 3021 products (87 center dot 3 %). Energy content was declared in 87 center dot 0 %; total fats in 86 center dot 1 %; saturated fats in 81 center dot 5 %; trans-fats in 48 center dot 9 %; total sugars in 70 center dot 3 %; added sugars in 0 center dot 5 % and Na/salt in 85 center dot 5 % of products. Insufficient nutrient information made impossible to assess nutritional quality in 36 center dot 6 and 17 center dot 1 % of products with the PAHO and WHO-Europe models, respectively. Using PAHO and WHO nutrient profiles, we found that 66 center dot 2 and 50 % of food products did not meet the model's nutritional criteria. Conclusions: A high proportion of pre-packaged foods with nutritional information available in Guatemalan supermarkets do not meet the nutritional criteria recommended by WHO and PAHO. Furthermore, a high proportion of products did not declare critical nutrients and many did not even provide any nutritional information. National regulations should consider making critical nutrient declarations (including trans-fats and sugars) mandatory for all products.