Supplementary Issue

▪ Keyword : nutrient profiling models, meals away from home, food environment, Southeast Asia

▪ Content : It is imperative to recognise that the main components of the food environment in SEA are not processed foods and the so-called ultra-processed foods. Instead, large segments of the population have their meals fre-quently away from home, as demonstrated by data from Malaysia and Indonesia in this supplement. A myri-ad of eating places have mushroomed in countries in the region, ranging from street foods, coffee shops, hawker centres and restaurants as well as through numerous food delivery services. Many of these meals are imbalanced, lacking in the healthful food groups, whilst containing high amounts of sugar, oil and salt.

▪ Keyword : away-from-home meals, eating out, food environment, Malaysia, policy and programmes

▪ Content : Away-from-home meals have become an increasingly common part of the Malaysian diet, with the wide availability of hawker stalls, coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, and food delivery services catering to diverse tastes and budgets. This paper provides a narrative overview of the Malaysian context, based on relevant liter-ature and policy initiatives. The growing eating-out practice is driven by urbanisation, lifestyle changes, lim-ited time for home cooking, growing preference for convenience, and rising incomes. While eating out has become a social norm, its increased frequency raises nutrition and public health concerns. Local evidence shows that many commonly consumed hawker foods are high in sodium, sugar, and fat, while lacking healthful ingredients such as vegetables, potentially ...

▪ Keyword : eating out, meals away from home, food environment, dietary, public health

▪ Content : Out-of-home food consumption in Thailand has risen markedly in recent decades, driven by urbanization, changing family structures, increased participation of women in the labour force, and expansion of digital food delivery platforms. This shift reflects broader transformations in the national food environment, in which convenience, accessibility, and cultural norms strongly influence dietary behaviours. Although eating outside the home is deeply embedded in Thai social life and contributes significantly to both informal and formal economies, meals prepared away from home are frequently energy-dense and nutritionally imbalanced. Evidence from national surveys and empirical studies consistently links frequent consumption of street food, restaurant meals, and delivery items with poorer ...

▪ Keyword : nutrient profiling, nutrient density, WHO Southeast Asia Region, protein, vitamins and minerals

▪ Content : The stated purpose of nutrient profiling (NP) models is to help implement dietary guidelines by addressing prevailing health issues. In high-income countries, obesity and non-communicable diseases are the main health issues of concern. As a result, NP models typically penalize packaged processed foods that contain cal-ories, total or added sugar, sodium, and saturated fat. This negative nutrition approach may not be optimal for Southeast Asia, where nutrient shortfalls and nutrient deficiencies are still prevalent. A more positive ap-proach featuring nutrients to encourage might be more appropriate.

▪ Keyword : Thai food, nutrient profile, nutrition labelling, healthy meal criteria, healthy environment

▪ Content : Background and Objectives: In Thailand, meals are commonly consumed as combinations of multiple dish-es, yet no established nutritional criteria exist to evaluate the healthfulness of meals. This study aimed to de-velop healthy meal criteria for Thai diets using a nutrient profile model. Methods and Study Design: The Nutrient Profiling System for Meals (NPS-M) was developed with six nutritional components: energy, protein, vegetables, total fat, added sugar, and sodium. A scoring algorithm was created. Meal combinations were considered healthier if they achieved scores ≥70%, with no zero score in any one component. A total of 72,149 meals were constructed and evaluated. Criterion validity was assessed by comparing NPS-M with the Nutrient-Rich Foods Index 6.3 (NRF6.3), Health Star Rat...

▪ Keyword : nutrient profiling for dishes, sodium intake, Japanese diet, food reformulation, public health

▪ Content : Background and Objectives: Excessive sodium intake remains a major public health issue in Japan, contrib-uting to the burden of non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension. To address this, these authors de-veloped two nutrient profiling models, one for processed foods and another for dishes, to guide food reformu-lation and promote healthier eating. This article focuses on the dish model, which can be applied to other re-gions where ready-to-eat meals are highly available. Methods and Study Design: The Nutrient Profile Model for Dishes in Japan (NPM-DJ) was developed using data from the Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top and Ja-pan’s National Health and Nutrition Survey.

▪ Keyword : nutrient profiling system, Japanese dishes, Japanese meals, sodium reduction, dietary assessment

▪ Content : Nutrient profiling systems (NPS) are used to rank foods by nutrient composition to support public health pol-icy and consumer guidance. Most existing NPS are designed for packaged foods and evaluate nutrients per 100 g or 100 mL, which may not reflect dietary patterns in cultures where home-cooked meals predominate. In Japan, excessive sodium intake, primarily from seasonings and condiments, remains a major public health issue. The Ajinomoto Group Nutrient Profiling System (ANPS) was developed to evaluate Japanese dishes and meals “as consumed,” using culturally relevant serving sizes and four criteria: protein, vegetables, satu-rated fatty acids, and sodium. ANPS was validated using nutrient composition data from 1,089 dishes and 1,816 meals, including recommended, randomly genera...