Nutritional Value Score rates foods based on global health priorities

Nutritional Value Score rates foods based on global health priorities | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Nutritional Value Score rates foods based on global health priorities Ty Beal, Flaminia Ortenzi This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3443927/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 23 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in The Journal of Nutrition → Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract Nutrient profiling systems (NPS) are used to rate foods by nutritional value using food composition data. NPS have different purposes and limitations. Existing NPS have not adequately incorporated foods and food composition data from low- and middle-income countries and accounted for the nutritional needs of these populations in their scoring criteria. Recent publications have also called for developing NPS for global use and for assessing environmental impacts and affordability of foods. To address these needs, we developed the Nutritional Value Score (NVS), which is based on nutrients of global health priority and dietary factors predictive of noncommunicable disease risk. The NVS uses locally available, commonly consumed foods from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, and the United States and, where possible, local food composition data. The NVS effectively identifies nutritious food groups and discriminates nutritional differences within food groups, which can be used to target the most nutritious foods for policy and programmatic interventions in low- and middle-income countries. It also enables more nutritionally relevant comparisons than mass or energy in environmental impact and affordability assessments. Although further validation is needed, initial testing suggests the NVS is suitable for identifying foods with high nutritional value to aid decision making and can be adapted to different contexts globally. Health sciences/Medical research/Epidemiology Health sciences/Medical research/Translational research Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences/Environmental impact Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files Supplementaryinformation6Nov2024.pdf Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 23 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in The Journal of Nutrition → Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3443927","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":245234565,"identity":"6f8c548a-9283-40d7-8d23-3704583683d5","order_by":0,"name":"Ty Beal","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA5klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCSB+UMHAwMbAA2QVMCQQ1MED0pJwBqbFwIBILYltYCaRWuylmw9+SJxXK88n3XvwwQ+DP3kM7L2PX+C1ReZYskTituOGbTLnkg17DAyKGXiOm1ngd1iOAVDLMcY2iRwzCR4Dg8QGiTQ2A/xa8j//SJxzzB6oxfznH+K05LBJJDbUJIJsYYbawvwAr5Y7x8wsEo4dSAZqMZaWMTBObOM5xoZPBwP77ObHNz7U1NnOn5Fj+PFNhVxiP3sb8we8eiDgMIIJtIJNgggtdSg8omwZBaNgFIyCkQMABSdGAQDnoFAAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0398-9825","institution":"Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ty","middleName":"","lastName":"Beal","suffix":""},{"id":245234566,"identity":"457ca7c1-2d8b-4f67-a5d5-fd90cd75d36f","order_by":1,"name":"Flaminia Ortenzi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Flaminia","middleName":"","lastName":"Ortenzi","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2023-10-14 00:15:17","currentVersionCode":2,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3443927/v2","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3443927/v2","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2026.101443","type":"published","date":"2026-03-24T00:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":81218605,"identity":"82e0bd5c-3b59-47c9-b2d4-445d186337e2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-23 14:47:44","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":2406406,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSupplementary Information\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Supplementaryinformation6Nov2024.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3443927/v2/54a918da495026295a1c1973.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"Nutritional Value Score rates foods based on global health priorities","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3443927/v2","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3443927/v2","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eNutrient profiling systems (NPS) are used to rate foods by nutritional value using food composition data. 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