RTE grain-based dessert purchases drop 24% in US

Who’s eating all the pies? Not as many American consumers as you’d expect, apparently.

Purchases of ready-to-eat grain-based desserts (RTE GBDs) such as cakes, cookies, pies, doughnuts and pastries fell by 24% in the US between 2005 and 2012.

University of North Carolina researchers analysed the RTE GBD category, focusing on two aspects: changes in nutritional content of manufactured RTE GBD products and consumer purchases of such products.

They found that the nutritional profile of these products has changed very little since 2005: they are still high in energy, sugar and saturated fat. However, consumers are buying fewer of these products.

Reformulating RTE GBD products so they’re healthier poses significant difficulties in terms of replicating taste, appearance and texture. Thus, new products coming to market aren’t much different, nutritionally speaking, than their older counterparts.

“A potential concern of shifting purchases of RTE GBDs towards products with lower energy, sugar or saturated fat content is that consumers could potentially purchase more RTE GBD products if they are perceived to be healthier. Stealth reformulations by which changes in the product composition are conducted unbeknownst to consumers is one option to circumvent this issue,” said the lead author of the study, Dr Kevin C Mathias, a recent graduate of the Nutrition Department at the University of North Carolina.

Dr Mathias says these potential issues highlight the need for continual monitoring of both the amount and nutritional content of products purchased to ensure that efforts to improve consumer choices are effective.

“The results from the product and purchase level analyses highlight an opportunity for both food manufacturers and public health officials to work together to develop strategies to shift consumer purchases towards products with lower energy, sugar and saturated fat densities in addition to decreasing overall purchases of RTE GBDs,” concluded Dr Mathias.

The study’s findings were published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.