Fresh help for firms struggling with nutrition profiling

The company, which brings together a consulting firm and a development laboratory focused on nutrition and health, has developed NutrimetTIC to provide nutritional analysis with a few clicks of a mouse.

“It’s the first online application system dedicated to the nutritional qualities of foods,”​ Celine Le Stunff, nutrition and regulatory affairs consultant at Lrbeva Nutrition, told FoodNavigator.

“The main need is to get low-cost nutritional values ​​over wide ranges of food products. This would be very expensive if companies had to analyze each recipe in a laboratory. EU Regulation 1169/2011 introduced mandatory nutrition labeling and all companies will have to know the nutritional values of their products. Many of them are starting from scratch!“​

Major names​

The system is based on the ‘Sain-Lim’ method of nutritional analysis, which is approved by the European Food Safety Authority. Lrbeva Nutrition claims major names in food manufacturing, retail and catering have adopted the tool.

Interested companies simply sign up to use it online and can access their own dedicated database where they can enter new information and get codes for different users. Alongside nutrient profiling and information on potential nutrition claims products can make, the service can also highlight preformatted nutritional labelling.

“It can interest any company that has lots of recipes and wants to know their nutritional value, with the aim of nutrition labelling and/or improving their nutritional qualities,”​ said Le Stunff. She said the service would also work as a great way for businesses to work collaboratively and share information.

Four criteria​

The tool uses four criteria for consumption frequency: 1/daily; 2/frequent; 3/occasionally and 4/exceptionally. NutrimetTIC not only examines the criteria qualifying and disqualifying the product, but also suggests areas of work to place it in a better category. Lrbeva Nutrition said it could also provide support and guidance to interested parties on how to improve their nutritional profile.

Lrbeva Nutrition said many food industry firms had nutritionally improved their products by reducing salt levels, improving the quality of fat and working on portion size and calorie intake. However, without a tool dedicated to nutrition it was hard to quickly assess a range of products and prioritise areas for improvement, it added.

The company claims no fewer than 30 charters have been contracted with the French state under the National Health and Nutrition Programme (PNNS). The most recent initiatives concern both small to medium-sized enterprises such as Meralliance and global players such as Mars.