Introduction

Foods marketed for the vegetarian population should provide the micronutrients that they are not taking for having removed the animal source products from their diets. The nutritional composition and other information necessary for making a proper selection of this type of products should be provided in the food labeling aimed for this population. Objective: To evaluate the labeling of foods marketed for the vegetarian population in Colombia.

Material and Methods

Vegetarian meat-analog products, cheese substitutes, vegetable drinks and vegetable ice creams were purchased to estimate the compliance of the labeling items, analyze their declared nutritional composition and evaluate their nutrient profile. A product from each category was studied by means of physicochemical analysis methods, in order to contrast the results with the information reported in the nutritional labeling.

Results

167 products were analyzed. It was found that 27% of the products did not comply to the basic regulatory guidelines of the labeling. In addition, 16.8% of these did not provide data on the intake of nutrients. In the composition, great differences were observed in the nutritional content of equivalent product categories. These foods were characterized by low values of calcium and iron and high values of sodium. Regarding the physicochemical contrast, there are variations greater than 50% from the information declared on the labels of several nutrients. Most vegetable drinks and ice creams were classified as unhealthy.

Conclusions

It is necessary to improve the nutritional composition of the products aimed at the vegetarian population, providing a greater amount of nutrients that are critical among this population.

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