ePrints

Developing the Sus-Health Index: a combined measure for describing environmental impact and nutritive value of foods and meals

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Francisco ArealORCiD, Dr Orla CollinsORCiD, Dr Novieta SariORCiD, RAO Fu, Professor Lynn FrewerORCiD

Downloads

• Published version [.pdf]

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

There is a need to develop a commonly agreed approach that describes a food’s nutritive value and environmental impact that can be used to inform consumer choices. A new single index, the “Sus-Health Index”, is presented. The index was co-created by a range of stakeholders drawn from policy, industry, and consumer representation groups. The index is a product of existing nutrition and environmental indices, using a composite indicator methodology, and can be presented quantitatively as a numeric value or qualitatively on a categorised, colour coded, scale “A(best)-E (worst)”. The index has been applied to a data set comprising food products and meals to assess its sensitivity and applicability using a Monte Carlo simulation. The results indicate that the Sus-Health scale represents a pragmatic indicator of a food or meal’s combined nutritional and environmental value and could be used to help inform consumers food choices.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Grigoriadis V, Livingstone D, Thomas EL, Brereton P, Woodside JV, Nugent A, Smyth B, Hutchinson G, Vlajic J, Areal F, Collins O, Sari N, Fu R, Frewer LJ

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

Year: 2025

Volume: 380

Issue: 1935

Print publication date: 18/09/2025

Online publication date: 18/09/2025

Acceptance date: 06/02/2025

Date deposited: 03/10/2025

ISSN (print): 0962-8436

ISSN (electronic): 1471-2970

Publisher: Royal Society Publishing

URL: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0160

DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2024.0160

Data Access Statement: Data files are provided as the electronic supplementary material: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7953942.v1

Altmetrics

Funding

Share