For years, retailers, manufacturers and marketers have been clamoring for a single benchmark that would facilitate comparisons of healthy eating patterns by key regions and time periods. Although The Nielsen Company has frequently reported on healthy eating trends, most insights have been focused on individual characteristics or product claims like organic or fat free. The missing piece of the puzzle has been a single measure that includes a combination of several key healthy eating indicators across multiple categories.
By combining the sales of 13 healthy eating components relative to total (UPC-coded food sales), the Nielsen Healthy Eating Index can track healthy eating choices over time and monitor the impact of industry health and wellness initiatives. The index is calculated by adding supermarket sales for products with health claims on their label, like natural or reduced calorie. Sales are also added from some inherently healthy categories like fresh produce.
Adjustments are made to give more weight to key healthy eating indicators with relatively low sales like omega and antioxidant claims. Other health claims with strong sales like reduced fat and natural are given less weight to avoid having fluctuations in commodity prices adding volatility to the Index.
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