Ingesta de calcio en la población española. Predicción del consumo de alimentos enriquecidos en calcio en función de la percepción de las declaraciones de salud en la comunidad universitaria de valladolid

Resumen

Calcium is an essential mineral necessary for the proper maintenance of bone health throughout the human life cycle. In the review carried out in this study, it has been seen that in Spain the dietary intake of calcium is insufficient among the adolescent population (10-19 years) and elderly over 60 years of age. There is evidence that the use of health claims (HC) improves the quality of dietary choices and the knowledge of the diet-disease relationship. For its part, the food industry develops functional foods (FF) with HC in order to optimize the health of consumers and EFSA together with the European Commission are in charge of establishing the requirements and the legal framework to ensure consumer´s protection. Obviously, the development of FF must be accompanied by the application of adequate controls and monitoring to ensure that HC are used to promote public health and protect consumers against misleading information. Despite these guarantees, consumption of FF with HC depends notably on the perception of the consumer. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis, after knowing the Ca dietary intake in Spain, has been to develop consumption predictive models of dairy foods enriched in Ca based on consumer´s perception of the HC displayed on the labeling in a sample of the Community of the University of Valladolid (CUVa). In order to achieve the proposed objectives we carried out a literature review and a quantitative, observational and prospective study with a cross-sectional analytical survey design on 1261 people belonging to the CUVa, in 2019. With the data obtained from the surveys, we developed three predictive models for two FF with HC related with Ca, corresponding to the purchase intention, the shopping and the intake of each of them according to the perception of the respondents. The results of the observational study suggest that the perception of HC influences the purchase intention, shopping and intake of the two dairy products analyzed. Both HC are perceived in a favorable way, although HC2 “Helps to maintain your bone density” is better valued than HC1 “Fit bones”. According to the sociodemographic factors, women, people under 20 years of age and those over 60 years of age, as well as subjects surveyed with a higher level of education, perceived HCs more favorably. Based on these results we can conclude that the favorable perception of the HC related to Ca shown by the respondents can increase the consumption of the dairy foods that contain them. This, can contribute to reaching the RDI of Ca in age groups with insufficient intakes, and therefore assist in improving their bone health and to prevent bone related diseases. Likewise, we recommend that the approval of the HC would be according to the target population to which they are directed and to have a long and explanatory wording. We also recommend that functional foods with HC to be proposed by health professionals.