Characterizing ingredients in commercially packaged baked products sold in the U.S.: an application of IngID

Authors: Ahuja, Jaspreet; LI, YING - University Of Maryland; QUYNHANH, NGUYEN - University Of Maryland; Pehrsson, Pamela

Submitted to: Journal of Food Composition and Analysis
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/12/2022
Publication Date: 8/17/2022
Citation: Ahuja, J.K., Li, Y., Quynhanh, N., Pehrsson, P.R. 2022. Characterizing ingredients in commercially packaged baked products sold in the U.S.: an application of IngID. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis. 114:104830. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2022.104830.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2022.104830

Interpretive Summary: Recent research has strengthened the link between consumption of commercially processed foods and health, and the need to look beyond nutrients. Commercially packaged baked products such as fresh breads and rolls, cookies, crackers, and pastry/doughnuts are an integral part of the American diet. A prototype of IngID, a framework for parsing and systematically reporting ingredients used in commercially packaged foods, was recently developed, using ingredient statements mainly from USDA’s Global Branded Food Products Database. Our results show that baked products sold in the U.S. mainly use refined wheat, non-hydrogenated oils, nutritive sweeteners, and additive-type ingredients including emulsifiers, coloring agents, and fortificants. This small group of ingredients occur and co-occur very frequently in packaged baked products and form the core of the ingredient network. IngID can help improve our understanding of commercial ingredients, potentially improve efficiency of data cleaning, processing and analysis of ingredient list details, and contribute to improved food composition databases, dietary assessment tools, study of interaction of ingredients, and will be useful for nutritionists, food scientists, food ontologists, and computer programmers.

Technical Abstract: Commercially packaged baked products such as fresh breads and rolls, cookies, crackers, and pastry and doughnuts are an integral part of the American diet. However, there is general lack of information in scientific literature on the ingredients used in these foods. A prototype of IngID, a framework for parsing and systematically reporting ingredients used in commercially packaged foods, was recently developed, using ingredient statements mainly from USDA’s Global Branded Food Products Database. Our results show that baked products sold in the U.S. mainly use refined wheat, non-hydrogenated oils, nutritive sweeteners, and additive-type ingredients including emulsifiers, coloring agents, and fortificants. This small group of ingredients occur and co-occur very frequently in packaged baked products and form the core of the ingredient network. Only 5% of the top-selling baked products are wheat-free; hydrogenated/partially hydrogenated oils continue to be used in up to 1/3rd of pastry; baked products use on average 16 additive-type ingredients (includes sweeteners and table salts) and majority use multiple sweeteners. Not all baked products are the same. For example, pastry has the highest proportions of use of refined grains, hydrogenated/partially hydrogenated oils, additive-type ingredients including coloring agents and emulsifiers. IngID enables characterization of what is in the food we eat in a systematic manner, beyond nutrient profiles.