Food labelling for healthier choices - Towards an EU-wide Nutri-Score

One third of children and half of adults in the EU are overweight or obese. Excess weight increases a person’s risk to develop nutrition-related chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer. Part of the problem has to do with our diets. Yet spotting the healthier yoghurt, cereals or ready meal in the supermarket is no easy task.

While no front-of-pack nutritional label can ever be a ‘silver bullet’ to solve all of the food system’s problems, health experts recognise well-designed FOPNLs as an important tool for informing consumers in the supermarket.

What’s the situation in Europe?

Since 2016, the Food Information to Consumers Regulation requires all food and non-alcoholic drinks on sale in the EU to carry a nutritional declaration on the back of the pack. But few consumers have the time to read the nutritional table and need something that sums it up quickly. A simplified nutritional label on the front of the pack with colour-coding allows them to spot instantly the healthier yoghurt or snack.

Having recognised the need for an EU-wide nutrition label, the European Commission committed in its 2020 Farm to Fork strategy to choose one model. The proposal is expected early 2023.

What's the latest?

In September 2022, the Joint Research Centre (which provides crucial scientific advice to the European Commission) came out with some important studies on food information to consumers, including on FOPNL. This aims to feed into the European Commission’s proposal to revise the Food Information to Consumers Regulation.

The JRC review confirmed a previous one carried out in 2020:

Consumers tend to understand simpler, evaluative, colour-coded labels more easily than more complex, reductive, monochrome labels.

Comparison between products is easier when basing a label on a uniform reference amount (e.g. per 100g or 100ml), rather than on portion sizes (which are chosen by the manufacturer themselves).
Simplicity, consistency, and salience may be especially relevant in the shopping environment when consumers tend to make decisions quickly.
A mandatory label works best for consumers. A voluntary FOPNL would hinder adequate consumer understanding as manufacturers whose products receive poor scores may simply opt not to use it.

Nutri-Score converts the nutritional value of food and beverages into a simple overall score. It is based on a scale of five colours and letters (A is green to represent the best nutritional quality while E is dark orange to show it is the lowest).

Nutri-Score is calculated considering both the nutrients to limit (calories, saturated fat, sugars and salt) and those elements to favour (fibre, proteins, nuts, fruit and vegetables). The food is assigned a colour and letter based on the resulting score, calculated per 100g or 100ml. The algorithm was developed by a team of independent researchers.

Compared to other labels Nutri-Score has the following advantages:

It is the easiest label to understand. Evidence from research conducted in several countries shows Nutri-Score currently is the best-performing scheme in aiding consumers to compare the nutritional value of foods across a range of products.
It makes consumers’ shopping baskets healthier. Research has shown that it is the label that works best in making consumers’ food choices healthier – including for low-income households, who are most at risk of becoming overweight or obese. Also, it helps consumers eat smaller portions.
It uses colour-coding. Research shows colour-coding greatly helps consumers to compare the nutritional quality of food and beverages.
It uses positive and negative aspects in its calculations. This results in a summary score based on nutrients that have a positive impact (such as fibre) and on nutrients that have a negative impact (like sugar and salt).
It is based on uniform reference amounts such as per 100g/100ml. Only then, it is possible to compare products with different portion sizes.
It has been developed based on solid, independent and transparent scientific evidence, and is free from commercial interests.
It incentivises food makers to improve their recipes - although not its main purpose. To achieve a better score, manufacturers must improve the nutritional quality of their products.

Seven European countries have endorsed Nutri-Score: France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The countries have joined forces to step up the roll out of the label. To do so, they have established a steering committee to work towards more products displaying the Nutri-Score. In parallel, they have established a scientific committee with experts from the participating countries to consider potential adaptations of the label.

The science supporting the Nutri-Score’s effectiveness is solid. Compared to other labels it consistently performs best for; consumer understanding, appreciation and impact on food purchasing choices. Moreover, evidence shows that the label is well-aligned with dietary recommendations and the Mediterranean diet.

Piramide Universale della dieta mediterranea, università degli studi suor orsola benincasa

Nevertheless, it is important that any nutrition label is systematically reviewed to consider new evidence and any public health concerns. In summer 2022, the seven countries who have endorsed the Nutri-Score published the first scientific review of the label. They concluded – as expected – that the algorithm works well overall but certain areas should be updated and improved. In April 2023, the seven countries published a further update to the algorithm, this time for beverages. Overall, the modifications make the Nutri-Score stricter for the drinks category.

The updated algorithm of Nutri-Score will be rolled out in the countries that already have implemented the label once all components are revised and adopted.

So, what’s new?

April 2023 Beverages update | Summer 2022 update

April 2023 - Beverages update

MILK, MILK-BASED AND PLANT-BASED BEVERAGES
Until now milk-based beverages were included in the solid foods category rather than the beverages category. This sometimes produced more favourable scores than what was justified from a nutritional perspective. The update to the algorithm sees such products now logically considered as ‘beverages’.

What does this mean in practice? Milk-based beverages, including high-sugar dairy drinks such as strawberry-flavoured yogurt drinks, milk and plant-based beverages will see less favorable Nutri-Scores.

SWEETENERS PENALISED
Following analysis of national dietary guidelines which recommend avoiding the consumption of non-nutritive sweeteners as well as a review of the latest scientific evidence, for the first time, their presence in any beverage will now be penalised by the Nutri-Score.

It was underlined that the Nutri-Score should encourage the industry to lower the sugar content in its products without increasing the use of artificial sweeteners.
What does this mean in practice? A drink which contains these substances automatically ‘drops’ down a score. This means that no drink containing a sweetener will obtain a score higher than a ‘C’.

FRUIT JUICES REMAIN UNCHANGED
Fruit juices often contain high levels of sugar, sometimes even more than sugar-sweetened fizzy drinks. Even if the sugars in fruit juices are natural and not added to the product, they still significantly contribute to sugar consumption in our diets, especially for children. At the same time, they are low in dietary fibre compared to the whole fruits from which they are derived.

The scientists rightfully concluded that the current algorithm adequately classifies fruit juices and diluted fruit juices considering the sugar content in fruit juices.

IMPROVED CLASSIFICATION OF LOW-SUGAR BEVERAGES
While sugar-sweetened beverages with high amounts of sugar will still receive D or E Nutri-Scores, the sugar component of the algorithm has been adjusted to ensure better discrimination between beverages containing small amounts of sugar.
What does this mean in practice? Beverages with very limited amounts (less than 2g of sugar per 100ml) can now reach an improved classification (B).

SUMMER 2022 UPDATE

SUGAR
This key nutrient of concern now receives more unfavourable points in the calculation.

What does this mean in practice? The update makes it much stricter for sugary products to achieve positive scores and improves the discrimination between low and high sugar content products. This means that in the supermarket consumers will see fewer breakfast cereals receiving A or B grades and many more candies receiving the worst scores.

For example, in the Netherlands the stricter scoring for sugar will see the share of candy products receiving an E go from 10% to 69%.

SALT
In the current algorithm high-salt but low-energy products do not score as badly as foods high in fat or sugar. With the new algorithm, foods packed with salt are not treated too leniently.

What does this mean in practice? It will be more difficult for high salt products such as processed cheese or pizza to get ‘good’ scores.

For example in Belgium the share of ‘E’ processed cheese products will rise from 12% to 51%. For pizzas there will be a virtual elimination of pizzas receiving ‘A’ or ‘B’ in any country.

FATS AND OILS
A hot topic in the debate on nutrition labels, the scientific committee took on board the substantial evidence of the beneficial health effects of vegetable oils such as olive oil which are low in saturated fats and high in healthier poly-unsaturated fatty acids. Scientists considered it necessary to consider the dietary recommendations of all the countries.

What does this mean in practice? Some plant-based oils such as canola oils, walnut oils, and olive oils are now upgraded from ‘C’ to ‘B’, as well as some types of sunflower oil. Crucially, fats and oils which are high in saturated fats such as butter, margarine and cream retain their lower scores.

MEAT
Currently, fresh red meat tends to receive A or B scores for its high protein content and naturally low sugar or salt content. However, dietary guidelines recommend limiting the intake of red and processed meat as high consumption is associated with various health impacts. Therefore, scientists adjusted the algorithm to reflect these recommendations.

What does this mean in practice? Red meat and processed meat are treated more strictly. Although it is still possible for beef products to achieve an A or a B score, the proportion is much lower.

For example, in France the number of unprocessed beef products receiving top scores (A or B) has reduced from 42% to 28%, while 62% of processed meat products will now receive an ‘E’ score.

FIBRE
As dietary recommendations across Europe consistently recommend the consumption of wholegrain products over refined ones, the scientific review team decided to update the algorithm to better reward products high in fibre.

What does this mean in practice? Fewer refined breads get the best score (‘A’) while more fall in the ‘C’ grade. At the same time, most whole grain breads are rated ‘A’ or ‘B’.

With a strong network of more than 45 national consumer organisations in 32 countries, BEUC uniquely represents the voice of consumers in the European decision-making process.

BEUC wants the Nutri-Score to become the EU-wide mandatory label on the front of food packages, because it is the best front-of-pack nutrition label.

Consumers like Nutri-Score. Surveys from France and Belgium, where Nutri-Score has been used for a few years already, indicate that consumers benefit from seeing the label on food packages:
94% of French consumers are in favour of Nutri-Score on food packages
89% want it to become mandatory.