The latest changes to Nutriscore labeling have generated disagreements in part of the food industry, which continues to demand a single, harmonized system within the European Union (EU) on which there is still no agreement. progress.
The Nutriscore algorithm, updated in 2024, further penalizes the sugar and salt content, differentiates refined products from whole grain products, limits the points for red meat proteins, improves the score for olive oil and worsens the score for sugary milk drinks, flavored yogurt drinks and sugary drinks, among other changes.
Beverage news
The multinational Danone expressed its disagreement with the revision which classifies drinkable dairy products and plant-based alternatives in the category of drinks, considering that it offers “an erroneous vision of their nutritional and functional quality”, and “confuses consumers by presenting different scores for products with similar nutritional objectives that differ only in format.”
Danone, which had voluntarily adopted Nutriscore – a front-end labeling system for foods allowing consumers to easily and quickly assess its nutritional quality – on the packaging of its products in Europe, has decided to gradually remove this labeling from its products. starting this month. dairy products and vegetables to drink.
“We call for the adoption, at EU level, of a harmonized system of interpretative nutritional information that benefits all European consumers and we are open to continued dialogue and collaboration to achieve this,” company sources tell EFE, willing to “continue improving the nutritional contribution” of its products.
The Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (EREN), which shaped the Nutriscore fire with other institutions in France, criticizes the fact that Danone removes the logo from five of its brands, but keeps it in others with good classification when it suits the interests of its clients. .
EREN justifies the new criteria because the sugar content of drinking yogurtsSweetened milk drinks and plant-based drinks vary considerably between unsweetened and highly sweetened versions.
There is no single labeling in the EU
The latest update of the algorithm was carried out by a European scientific committee made up of experts in nutrition and public health from the seven countries that have voluntarily adopted the Nutriscore (France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland ).
Your decisions “are based on solid scientific foundations”declares EREN, who recalls that a worse classification D or E “does not mean that the food should not be consumed, but rather that it would be interesting to favor a better classified version or to consume it in quantities that are not too large and infrequent.”
European soft drinks association Unesda has criticized the new system because it “does not encourage” the reformulation of drinks and the innovation of new products with little or no sugar; and rejected the new penalty for the presence of sweeteners in drinks.
In Spain, sources from the Soft Drinks Association (Anfabra) defend a system “based on rigor and scientific evidence; be harmonized, universal and proportionate; and rigorously evaluate food composition and the importance of the diet as a whole.
The Spanish Federation of Food and Beverage Industries (FIAB) calls for promoting harmonized labeling systems at European level because “it is the only way to guarantee that the consumer, who increasingly demands a greater variety of products , can access the same complete and comprehensive information system.”
In the absence of the European Commission presenting its proposed directive to adopt compulsory labeling in the EU, which it had promised during the previous mandate but which it postponed, companies in the sector are divided.
The Mondel?z group, for example, excludes joining Nutriscore due to “the lack of convergence of the different initiatives for a single European labeling approach”, the lack of legal clarity between markets and the existence of elements that disproportionately penalize their product categories by including nutritional information per hundred grams instead of per serving.
And on the other side, companies like Nestlé, which uses it in many of its products in Europe and intends to implement the revised algorithm. “regardless of note changes”throughout the planned two years of transition, because “he has always been open to an evolution of Nustriscore based on scientific evidence and the latest nutritional knowledge”.
