Figure 1
Decision flow chart of a 9-steps approach to assigning added and free sugar content

The added and free sugar content of all 2,784 ingredient-level foods and 2,590 recipe-level foods recorded in 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey-Nutrition was estimated using a 9-steps approach.

The first step prompts the question ‘Does the food contain 0 gram in total sugar?’. There were 719 foods that contained 0 gram in total sugar. The content of 0 gram of added sugar and 0 gram of free sugar were assigned to these 719 foods (n_as = 719 and n_fs = 719). All other 2,065 foods (n_as = n_fs = 2,065) are next considered in the second step that prompts a next question. This process repeats itself in 8 steps prompting different questions. After these 8 steps that generate estimates for added and free sugar content of all ingredient-level foods, the added and free content of recipe-level foods is calculated as part of step 9 based on the estimates for ingredient-level foods.

Notes: n_as: the number of food items for added sugar; n_fs: the number of food items for free sugar.

Source: Author's compilation based on the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey - Nutrition content.