HYDERABAD: Amid growing exposure of Indian adolescents to ultra-processed foods and aggressive marketing of high-fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) products, researchers at the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) have developed and validated the country’s first comprehensive tool to assess nutrition and food literacy among adolescents.
The study introduces the Indian Nutrition and Food Literacy Tool (INFOLIT), designed for adolescents aged 13–15 years. Researchers said the tool addresses a critical public health gap by assessing the skills needed to apply nutrition knowledge to everyday food choices.
The study, conducted in Hyderabad among middle-income school-going adolescents, followed a rigorous five-phase mixed-methods design.
Psychometric testing among 400 adolescents evaluated item difficulty, discrimination and internal consistency.
After multiple validation stages, the final INFOLIT tool comprises 73 items across two domains: a cognitive domain focusing on knowledge and understanding, and a skills-based domain assessing how adolescents access, apply and critically evaluate nutrition information.
Unlike many international tools that emphasise knowledge alone, INFOLIT captures both the ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ aspects of food literacy. It includes areas such as food safety, lifestyle practices, hygiene in food preparation, interpretation of food labels and critical evaluation of advertisements. Researchers said cultural relevance was central to its design, with items tailored to Indian diets, commonly consumed foods and local food environments.
The study concludes that INFOLIT is a valid, reliable and culturally appropriate instrument that can support school-based nutrition education, guide public health interventions and help evaluate policies aimed at improving adolescent diets.