A validation study of a dietary assessment instrument capturing ultra-processed food consumption in multiple countries

Project Summary

Principal investigator(s):

Carlos Monteiro University of Sao Paulo

Duration:

24 months (from April 2021)

Value:

£250,000

Countries of research:

Brazil,

Ecuador,

India,

Senegal

Fundação Faculdade de Medicina (FFM)/Medical School Foundation

Co-Principal investigators:

Srinath Reddy, Public Health Foundation of India
Wilma B. Freire, Universidad San Francisco de Quito
Adama Diouf, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar

Co-investigator:

Maria Laura da Costa Louzada, University of São Paulo

The presence of ultra-processed food and drink products (UPF) in the current food environment is increasing, as is the consistency in the evidence base highlighting its negative health effects, ranging from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like cancer, diabetes, stroke and obesity to depression and all-cause mortality. Data also reflect their dominance in present-day food systems in high- and middle-income countries, and increasingly, in low-income countries. While a growing body of studies supports the use of the dietary share of UPF as a potent indicator of diet quality, there continues to be a lack of comparable data on UPF consumption across contexts and over time, especially in lower-income countries.

This project will adapt and validate the NOVA-UPF tool - a short screener asking people what they ate or drank on the previous day, from a comprehensive list of 23 categories of UPF.

The NOVA-UPF tool addresses specifically UPF intake. It is quick, simple to administer, easily adaptable to different contexts, captures a broad range of UPF that can be tracked over time, has a low researcher burden, and, when used across multiple contexts, allows for a high degree of comparability of UPF intake between contexts.

The original version of this tool was developed for a Brazilian context and validated against a full 24 hour-recall. To be applicable to other contexts, the NOVA-UPF tool will be adapted and validated.

The project aims are to:

(i) adapt and validate the NOVA-UPF tool and;

(ii) develop and test a protocol for applying the NOVA-UPF tool to track long term consumption, in three low-and-middle-income countries (LMIC).