CHANGES IN NUTRITIONAL QUALITY OF FOOD PRODUCT OFFERINGS AND PURCHASES: A CASE STUDY IN THE MID-1990's

This report provides a new economic approach and methodology for analyzing nutritional quality change in manufacturers' food product offerings and food products purchased using a case study of five food product categories in the mid-1990's. Two approaches were used to analyze nutritional quality change in product offerings. The first approach uses a composite nutritional index to measure changes. A second approach, nutrient-by-nutrient analysis, was also used to measure quality change. Overall, the nutrition index analysis showed no significant change in the average nutritional quality of products offered for sale in the five categories.