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. 2018 Aug 28;10(9):1177.
doi: 10.3390/nu10091177.

A Disaggregation Methodology to Estimate Intake of Added Sugars and Free Sugars: An Illustration from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey

Birdem Amoutzopoulos  1 , Toni Steer  2 , Caireen Roberts  3   4 , Darren Cole  5 , David Collins  6 , Dove Yu  7 , Tabitha Hawes  8 , Suzanna Abraham  9 , Sonja Nicholson  10 , Ruby Baker  11 , Polly Page  12
Affiliations

A Disaggregation Methodology to Estimate Intake of Added Sugars and Free Sugars: An Illustration from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey

Birdem Amoutzopoulos et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Various and inconsistent definitions for free and added sugars are used in the consideration and assessment of dietary intakes across public health, presenting challenges for nutritional surveillance, research, and policy. Furthermore, analytical methods to identify those sugars which are not naturally incorporated into the cellular structure of foods are lacking, thus free and added sugars are difficult to estimate in an efficient and accurate way. We aimed to establish a feasible and accurate method that can be applied flexibly to different definitions. Based on recipe disaggregation, our method involved five steps and showed good repeatability and validity. The resulting Free Sugars Database provided data for seven components of sugars; (1) table sugar; (2) other sugars; (3) honey; (4) fruit juice; (5) fruit puree; (6) dried fruit; and (7) stewed fruit, for ~9000 foods. Our approach facilitates a standardized and efficient assessment of added and free sugars, offering benefit and potential for nutrition research and surveillance, and for the food industry, for example to support sugar reduction and reformulation agendas.

Keywords: added sugars; dietary recommendations; food composition; free sugars; ingredients; method; nutrition survey; recipe analysis; sugars.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Steps for the estimation of free sugars and added sugars. * Sugar values expressed as monosaccharide equivalents which can exceed 100 g per 100 g of food because on hydrolysis 100 g of a disaccharide such as sucrose gives 105 g monosaccharide (glucose and fructose) [25]. S-table: sugar-table, S-other: sugar-other, S-honey: sugar-honey, S-fruit juice: sugar-fruit juice, S-fruit puree: sugar-fruit puree, S-stewed fruit: sugar-stewed fruit and S-dried fruit: sugar-dried fruit. WHO: World Health Organization. SACN: Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The steps for the estimations of added sugars and free sugars content of foods in the Nutrient Databank for reporting free sugars intake in the United Kingdom National Diet and Nutrition Survey (UK NDNS).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Bland and Altman plot for difference in added sugars and free sugars values (g/100 g) between known formulations and estimation of a data analyst for 50 food items. Added sugars: sugar-table + sugar-other; Free sugars (WHO): Added sugars + sugar-honey + sugar-fruit juice; Free sugars (SACN): Free sugars (WHO) + sugar-pureed fruit. WHO: World Health Organization. SACN: Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition.
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