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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Food Science Technology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1568181
Development of the Ajinomoto Group Nutrient Profiling System for Japanese Meals (ANPS-Meal)
Provisionally accepted- Ajinomoto (Japan), Tokyo, Japan
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Nutrient profiling (NP) is implemented through the NP model, an algorithm designed to classify or score foods based on their nutritional content and impact on human health for specific objectives. In a previous study, we developed the Ajinomoto Group Nutrient Profiling System (ANPS) to evaluate the nutritional value of cooked dishes specific to Japanese culinary traditions. This study aimed to develop a novel NP model that can be applied to the evaluation of meals, named the Ajinomoto Group Nutrient Profiling System for Japanese Meals (ANPS-Meal). The ANPS-Meal evaluates meals using essential components based on public health concerns specific to Japan. The scoring algorithm includes protein and vegetable content for encouraged intake and saturated fatty acids and sodium for limited intake. The convergent validity of this model was verified by comparison with the Healthy Eating Index-2015 (mHEI-2015) and the Nutrient-Rich Food Index 9.3 (NRF9.3). A total of 1,816 meals commonly consumed by Japanese people were evaluated using the ANPS-Meal. The average ANPS-Meal score was 73.7 (standard deviation = 15.5), with a median of 75 (interquartile range = 62.5-85) and a range of 27.5-100. High-scoring meals featured low sodium and high vegetable content. The higher quartiles of the ANPS-Meal were also associated with higher carbohydrate, dietary fiber, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, and vitamins A, D, and C, as well as lower fat content. Spearman's correlation coefficients were r = 0.59 for the mHEI-2015 and r = 0.40 for the NR9.3. The newly developed ANPS-Meal can be used for evaluating the overall nutritional value of a wide variety of meals based on four components (protein, vegetables, saturated fatty acids, and sodium).
Keywords: nutrient profiling system, dietary recommendations, Nutritional value, food culture, Japanese meals. (Min
Received: 29 Jan 2025; Accepted: 17 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jinzu, Arima, Kobayashi, Sakai, Nii, Nakayama, Okabe and Furuta. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chie Furuta, Ajinomoto (Japan), Tokyo, Japan
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