Читать книгу Whole Grains and Health - Группа авторов - Страница 42

As no generally accepted definition of whole grain foods is available, several working groups in different countries have dealt with this issue. A review by Ferruzzi et al. (2014) stated that qualification standards for whole grain foods vary among countries, governments and regulatory authorities, resulting in lack of standardization when it comes to labeling. This review also stated that the terms whole grain and dietary fibre are often used interchangeably in labeling, resulting in confusion for many consumers when buying whole grain foods. Establishing a whole grain food definition is therefore critical for moving the field forward not only to improve dietary guidelines, but also to provide standards to the food industries when producing tasty foods with high content of whole grain. A common definition would also aid the standardization of studies on health effects of whole grain foods.

Recently, HealthGrain Forum, a non‐for‐profit consortium of academics and industry working with cereal foods, established a working group to gather input from academics and industry to develop guidance on labeling the whole grain content of foods (Ross et al. 2017). The aim was to come up with a simple whole grain food definition that aligns with whole grain intake recommendations and can be applied for all product categories. The HealthGrain Forum recommends that a food may be labeled as “whole grain” if it contains 30% whole grain ingredients in the overall product and if it contains more whole grain than refined grains (both on dry weight basis). It also provided recommendations on labeling whole grain content in mixed‐cereal foods such as pizza and ready meals, and highlighted a need to meet health nutrition criteria. The definition allow comparison across product categories since it is based on dry weight and is a move away from generic whole grain labels and instead encourages reporting the actual percentage of whole grain in a product.