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The evolution of processed
foods and opportunities for
improving health
Eric A. Decker
Department of Food Science
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
The Indypendent
http://www.indypendent.org/2009/07/23/bacon-as-weapon/
Amy Jussel
http://www.shapingyouth.org/
Are Processed Foods Evil?
Many People Perceive Processed
Foods as Unhealthy
Hydrogenation
Fermentation
Interesterification
Hydrolysis
Emulsification
Particle Size Reduction
Extrusion
Plant Material
What is a Processed Food?
Foods that have been altered from
their natural state for safety
reasons and for convenience.
What isn’t a Processed Foods
Pick
Pick
Pick
Wash
Wash
Wash
Wax
Controlled Atmosphere
Storage
Vacuum Cool
Transport
Transport
Bake
Chop and Wash
Kitchen Process
Eat
Transport and Eat
Dress and Eat
Can Processed Foods Contribute
to Health and Wellness?
They must because the Food and
Agricultural Industries Feed the World
Challenges for Producing Foods
to Improve Health
A health promoting food must be:
Effective = Efficacy + Compliance
Efficacy
• Bioactive food component must be chemically and
physically stable during the typical shelf-life of the food.
• Bioactive must be bioavailable.
• Food containing the bioactive compounds must impact
health in humans.
Designing Foods to Improve Health
Value
Convenience
High Efficacy at
Preventing Diabetes
Taste
Requirements for Foods to
Improve Health
Health Promotion = Efficacy + Compliance
Compliance
Foods that have the taste, value and
convenience expected by consumers are
easily and repeatedly incorporated into the
diet.
Consumers Drivers to Food Choices
Taste
• Obvious fact for successful foods
– If your food doesn’t taste good, people won’t buy it
regardless of its health benefits.
– If people don’t buy the food, there is no chance to
improve health
Consumers Drivers to Food Choices
Value
• Food Cost are declining
– 1900: 50% of income spent on food
– 1980: 15% of income spent on food
• Due to:
– Increased food production by modern
agriculture
– Large scale processing of foods
– Large retailers who could offer better food
bargains and pressure food manufacturers to
further reduce food costs
Consumers Drivers to Food Choices
Convenience
• Lifestyle changes such as dual working
households and long commuting times
have driven the need for easily prepared
foods.
– 1887: Half of a households labor hours were
for preparing foods
– 1970: Food preparation < 30 min/day
– 2030: Food preparation projected at < 15
min/day
Consumers Drivers to Food Choices
Convenience
• Households are also spending less time
shopping for foods (< 15 min/day)
– Requires foods will long shelf-life so food
shopping is not a daily event
– Requires one stop shopping vs individual food
vendors
• Makes “buy local” difficult for many consumers to
work into their lifestyles
What is the Food Processing
Industry doing to Improve
Health?
Cardiovascular
Disease
Diabetes
Immune Response
Disorders
Osteoarthritus
Cancer
Sleep Disorders
What is the Most Important Organ
that Impacts Obesity?
Taste
Behavior
Eating Behavior
• Value is strongly related to $$/pound
• Consumers have problems controlling the
amount of food consumed meaning that
good value can be at conflict with nutrition
• Single portion/calorie control packaging
Fooling the Tongue
Behavior and Biology
• Foods with lower caloric density
– Replace refined starches with non-caloric
carbohydrates
• Fiber/resistant starch
– General Mills Fiber One line has increased
consumption of dietary fiber by 16 billion
grams/year
Fooling the Tongue
Behavior and Biology
• Sugar
– Per Capita Consumption of Sugar in U.S. has
Increased over 20 lb/year in past 20 years
USDA, from
Corn Refiners Association
Can Sugar Consumption be
Reduced?
• Hard to change consumer behavior
– Americans love sweet foods
– Could sugar consumption be reduced by
slow, long-term reduction?
• Sugar Replacement
– Noncaloric sweeteners
• Stevia
• Sugar enhancers
• Noncaloric sweetner blends
– Efficacy of noncaloric sweeteners?
Mean ({+/-} SEM) changes in body weight, fat mass, and fat-free mass during an intervention in
which overweight subjects consumed beverages containing either sucrose (n = 21) or artificial
sweeteners (n = 20) daily for 10 wk
Raben, A. et al. Am J Clin Nutr 2002;76:721-729
Copyright ©2002 The American Society for Nutrition
What is the Most Important Organ
that Impacts Obesity?
Biology
Satiety and Eating Behavior
• The Ileal Brake is a negative feedback
mechanism where undigested foods in the
small intestine slows down the digestive
process and produces hormones that
decrease appetite
• Induced by proteins and lipids especially if
their digestion is slow
Dietary Fibers and Satiety
Digestibility
BLG-Chitosan-Alginate
120
Lipid
FFA Released (%)
100
80
60
40
1º - B
2º - B-C
3º-B-C-A
20
0
0
20
40 60 80 100 120
Digestion Time (min)
Consumption of Good
Fruits and Vegetables
• High correlation to improved health
– cancer and heart disease
• Why??
– Calorie reduction
• Low energy density
– Replacement of other foods
• Meats
– Bioactive compounds
• Flavonoids
Fruits and Vegetable
5 a Day
Center of Disease
Control
Increasing the Consumption of
Fruits and Vegetable
• Challenges
– Availability
– Convenience
– Value
– Flavor
Sodium
• U.S. = >3400 mg sodium/day, well over
recommended levels
• 77% from processed and prepared foods
• IOM recommends decreasing salt over time.
– Not appropriate for all foods
– Salt used in processed foods for function (e.g. meats) and
preservation (e.g. cheese) as well as flavor (e.g. soups and
sauces)
– Some but not all food manufacturers are
reducing salt levels
• “Reasonable” regulation would make for a more even
playing field
Reducing Sodium
• Salt replacers
– bitterness (e.g. potassium)
• Synergistic salt combination
– Sea salt
• Salt delivery
– Size mattters
• Salt Enhancers
– Increase salt flavor with non-sodium
alternatives
What are the Future
Challenges for Healthy Foods
History of Foods and Nutritional
Deficiencies
• Food fortification:
– Niacin
Pellagra in the United
States, 1938-1954.
Miller, D.F., 1978
Challenges for Producing
Health Promoting Foods
• The next generation of bioactive food
components are not essential for health
therefore increased consumption with
have long term and not short term benefits
so efficacy is difficult to show and is often
dependent on genetics
Choosing the Next Generation
of Health Promoting
• Which foods/food components have been strong
evidence that they improve health
• Do foods/food components show efficacy when
included in the diet
• Do segments of the population have difficulty in
obtaining efficacious levels of the nutrient from a
normal diet
• Can foods with good flavor, value and
convenience be produced with the bioactive
compound
Developing the Next Generation
of Health Promoting
• There are several food components that fit the
criteria for food fortification:
– Whole grains
– Dietary Fibers
– Flavonoids
– Vitamin D
– Omega-3 Fatty acids
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
An example of a nutrient that could
improve health
1. Omega-3 fatty acids decrease the
incidence of sudden cardiac death,
improve brain health and decrease
inflammation
GISSI-Prevenzione
>11,300 post-MI patients were given usual care with or
without 850 mg EPA+DHA (1 cap/d) for 3.5 years
Total mortality
reduced by 28%
Sudden death
reduced by 47%
(p=0.027)
(p=0.0136)
Marchioli R et al. Circulation 2002;105:1897-1903.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
An example of a nutrient that could
improve health
2. Bioavailability of omega-3 fatty acids in
fortified foods is high
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
An example of a nutrient that could
improve health
3. Large segments of the population are
under consuming omega-3 fatty acids
– Avg. consumption for -3 fatty acids in U.S. men is:
• Total
• -Linolenic
• EPA + DHA
1.63 g/day
1.59 g/day
<0.1 g/day
– Clinical benefits beyond basic nutrition see benefits at
concentrations of 0.5-1.0 g DHA + EPA/day
Getting Your Long Chain n-3
Fatty Acids from the Diet
• Nutritional recommendations for long chain n3 fatty acids range from 0.5-1.0 g/day.
• To get 0.5 g n-3/day or 3.5 g n-3/week from
seafood you would have to consume:
3.0 servings/wk of farmed Atlantic salmon
or
5.8 servings/wk of albacore tuna/week
or
17.5 servings/wk of cod
Omega-3 Fatty Acids and
Health
4. Omega-3 fatty acids fortified foods can be
produced with great value, flavor and
convenience
Omega-3 fortified Yogurt (350 mg DHA/serving)
without Taste Differences
Like extremely
control (=7.07)
Like very much
Like moderately
Like slightly
algae enriched
yogurt (=6.96)
Neither like nor dislike
Dislike slightly
Dislike moderately
Dislike very much
Dislike extremely
What are the Future
Challenges for Healthy Foods
The Role of Public Policy and
Government Regulations
Nutritional Recommendation and Public
Policy and Processed Foods
• Public policy can be a powerful tool in
changing how foods are processed (e.g.
trans fatty acids)
– 76% of analyzed foods in Canada meet
required trans fatty acid reduction
– Estimated trans intake was reduced from 8.4
g/day (mid 1990s) to 3.4 g/day (2008; 60%
reduction)
Ratnayake et al., 2009
Nutritional Recommendation and Public
Policy and Processed Foods
• However, nutritional recommendations and
food policy must take a careful look at their
impact on the food supply
– If it is recommended to reduce one food
component what will take its place?
• Low fat products and sugar
• Fat sources
Nutritional Recommendation and
Public Policy and Processed Foods
• History of Fats in Processed Foods
• Original fats used in cooking were animal
derived
o Decrease Dietary Cholesterol
→Replace animal fats with tropical oils
o Decrease Dietary Saturated Fatty Acids
→Replace tropical oils with hydrogenated fats
o Decrease trans Fatty Acids
→Back to tropical oils??
Conclusions
• Processed Foods are a critical component of
developing food based approaches for
preventative health care strategies
• Processed foods that will improve health must
taste good, be convenient and have good value
or they will not be effective
• Future improvement of our food supply will
require incentives for the food industry to make
the investments necessary to produce healthier
foods