Nutrimap®: un outil opérationnel pour le profilage nutritionnel des produits alimentaires et des repas

Based on current nutritional guidelines and on observed levels of dietary intakes, Nutrimap® is a nutritional profiling system designed to help choices orientated towards an improvement of the global nutritional quality of the diet. Nutrimap® enables the positioning of food items on a two-dimension graph where both coordinates correspond to their nutritional assets or weaknesses. These coordinates are generated through an analysis of the nutritional composition of the food, which takes into account the considered food group and its contribution to nutrient supply to weight differently the nutritional criteria. The discriminative power of Nutrimap® is exemplified with two food categories (meat, egg and fish and composite dishes). Simulation on children's afternoon collation gathering different food items shows that Nutrimap® can be a valuable help in designing meals of controlled nutritional value. Other uses, namely food labelling or support for nutritional policies, are mentioned.