Assessment of free sugar intake and analysis of baked food consumption among urban residents aged 3 and above in China

ObjectiveTo understand the consumption, free sugar intake and its energy proportion ration of baked food among urban residents aged 3 and above in China.MethodsAccording to stratified multistage cluster random sampling, this study selected the consumption of baked food of 13 083 people aged 3 and above in 18 provinces in China by three non-consecutive 24 h dietary recalls. The data of sugar content in baked food comes from the special monitoring of baked food carried out by China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment. The simple distribution model was used to calculate individual free sugar intake and its energy proportion ratio of baked food per day.ResultsThe consumption rate of baked foods of urban residents aged 3 years and above in China was 24.11%, with that of women (25.69%) was slightly higher than that of men (22.42%). With the increase of age, the overall consumption rate of baked foods in all age groups showed a downward trend, with the highest consumption rate in the group of 3-5 years old (39.09%), and the lowest consumption rate in the group of over 60 years old (17.57%). The average consumption of baked foods in general population was 10.25 g/d, which was slightly higher in women than that in men (10.58 g/d and 9.92 g/d, respectively); the average consumption of baked foods in 13-17 years old group was the highest, which was 16.36 g/d, followed by 6-12 years old group and 3-5 years old group, which were 15.22 g/d and 13.25 g/d respectively. The average free sugar intake via baked foods among general population was 1.54 g/d, and its energy proportion ratio was 0.37% (0.37%TE), which was higher in women than that of men (1.60 g/d, 0.41%TE, 1.47 g/d, 0.33% TE, respectively); The highest intake of free sugar was 2.21 g/d (0.52% TE) in 13-17 years old group, followed by 2.14 g/d (0.59%TE) in 6-12 years old group and 1.94 g/d (0.65% TE) in 3-5 years old group. The average energy proportion ratio of baked foods among consumers was 1.53%TE (1.43%TE-1.67%TE), and the P95 value of consumers was 3.86%. The average free sugar intake of general population via bread and pastry was 0.68 g/d and 0.73 g/d respectively, which was much higher than that of biscuit 0.13 g/d.ConclusionThe consumption rate, free sugar intake and free sugar energy proportion ratio via baked foods among Chinese urban residents aged 3 and above were all higher in woman than men, and the level of free sugar intake through baked food was low. When it comes to reducing the sugar content of baked foods, it is suggested to focus on the people aged 3-5, 6-12 and 13-17, and focus on bread and pastry.