The Healthfulness of the US Packaged Food and Beverage Supply: A Cross-Sectional Study

Baldridge A et al conducted a cross-sectional analysis of US packaged food and beverage supply in 2018 using data from Label Insight’s Open Data, which represents over 80% of the all products over the past 3 years.

Nutrition data from over 230,000 products was obtained and healthfulness was assessed by Health Star Rating (HSR) and NOVA classification. The mean HSR was 2.7 out of 5, and over 70% were classified as ultra-processed.

Wide variation in healthfulness and level of processing was evident, including by food category and manufacturer, demonstrating opportunity for improvement within the US food and beverage supply.