Product & Distribution
Food production and distribution systems shape the availability and affordability of healthful foods by shifting food manufacturing and service practices.
Our research on food production and distribution examines how food manufacturing, large-scale food purchasing, and institutional food service practices influence human and planetary health. We study how policies regulating these practices, such as institutional food procurement standards and sodium benchmarks for industry, impact healthy food access and dietary intake. This work aims to identify policy strategies that improve the healthfulness of the food supply and ensure access to nutritious foods in institutional settings like schools, hospitals, and daycares.
Policy Questions
Did packaged food companies reduce sodium in their products during the National Salt Reduction Initiative (2009-2014), and was this progress sustained over time (through 2018)?
There was an 8.5% sales-weighted mean reduction in sodium in packaged foods between 2009 and 2018. Most change occurred in the first three years (2009-2012) of the NSRI, with little change in subsequent years. Similarly, the proportion of packaged foods meeting the 2012 and 2014 sodium reduction targets increased 48% and 45%, respectively, from 2009 to 2012, with no additional improvements in subsequent years. This shows that packaged food companies reduced sodium to meet the NSRI salt reduction targets, but no additional changes were made after the target-setting period ended.
If food companies met the National Salt and Sugar Reduction Initiative (NSSRI) sugar reduction targets, would children and adolescents consume less added sugar?
The NSSRI set sugar reduction targets for food categories accounting for 70% of US child and adolescent sugar intake in 2017-2018. If industry met the targets, US children and adolescents would consume 7% (2023 targets) and 21% (2026) targets less added sugar.
Impacts & Key Findings
-8.5%
Packaged food companies reduced sodium in packaged foods by 8.5% between 2009-2018, with most change during the first three years of the National Salt Reduction Initiative target-setting period and little change in subsequent years.
If the food industry met the National Salt and Sugar Reduction Initiative 2023 and 2026 sugar-reduction targets, US youth would consume 7% and 21% less added sugar, respectively.
