Ultra-processed foods (UPF), including those containing food additive emulsifiers, have received research attention due to evidence implicating them in the pathogenesis of certain diseases. The aims of this research were to develop a large-scale, brand-level database of UPF in the UK food supply and to characterise the occurrence and co-occurrence of food additive emulsifiers.

A database was compiled sampling all products from the food categories contributing to energy intake from UPF in the UK from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (2008–2014). Every food in these categories were identified from online supermarket provision from the ‘big four’ supermarkets that dominate the market share in the UK, comprising Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons.

Major supermarkets in the UK.

A total of 32 719 food products in the UK supermarket food supply were returned in searches. Of these, 12 844 products were eligible and manually reviewed for the presence of emulsifiers. Emulsifiers were present in 6642 (51·7 %) food products. Emulsifiers were contained in 95·0 % of ‘Pastries, buns and cakes’, 81·9 % of ‘Milk-based drinks’, 81·0 % of ‘Industrial desserts’ and 77·5 % of ‘Confectionary’. Fifty-one per cent of all emulsifier-containing foods contained multiple emulsifiers. Across emulsifier-containing foods, there were a median of two emulsifiers (IQR 2) per product. The five most common emulsifiers were lecithin (23·4 % of all products), mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (14·5 %), diphosphates (11·6 %), and xanthan gum and pectin (8·0 %).

Findings from this study are the first to demonstrate the widespread occurrence and co-occurrence of emulsifiers in UPF in the UK food supply.

The quality of labelled food product databases underlying popular diet applications (apps) with barcode scanners was investigated.

Product identification rates for the scanned products and the availability and accuracy of nutrient values were calculated.

One hundred food products were selected from the two largest supermarket chains in the Netherlands. Using the barcode scanners of the selected apps, the products were scanned and the results recorded as food diary entries. The collected data were exported.

Seven diet apps with barcode scanner and food recording feature were selected from the Google Play and Apple app stores.

Energy values were available for 99 % of the scanned products, of which on average 79 % deviated not more than 5 % from the true value. MyFitnessPal provided values for sixteen nutrients, while Virtuagym Food and Yazio provided values for only four nutrients. MyFitnessPal also showed the largest percentage of correctly identified products (i.e. 96 %) and SparkPeople the smallest (i.e. 5 %). The accuracy of the provided nutrient values varied greatly between apps and nutrients.

While energy was the most consistently and accurately reported value, the availability and accuracy of other values varied greatly between apps. Whereas popular diet apps with barcode scanners might be valuable tools for dietary assessments on the product and energy level, they appear less suitable for assessments on the nutrient level. The presence of user-generated database entries implies that the availability of food products might vary depending on the size and diversity of an app’s user base.