Five years after its arrival on supermarket shelves, it will change. Present since 2017 in France on more and more packaging, the Nutri-Score provides information on the nutritional intake of foods, rated from A (dark green) to E (dark orange). Its principle is simple: the more the product is rich in fibres, proteins and minerals, the better it is evaluated. Too much sugar, salt, or fat, and it slips to the bottom. By the end of the year, the criteria of its algorithm will be modified, “better consistent with dietary recommendations”, according to the French Ministry of Health.
These changes, proposed by the scientific committee that monitors the Nutri-Score, will have a direct impact on the ratings in the countries that have already adopted it (including France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Bas, Spain and Switzerland). But if brands widely apply it – even to the point of modifying their recipes – the tool is also controversial, some pointing to a classification that would be made to the detriment of local products, for example wine or cheese.
Better grades for oily fish
Initiated by a university team from Oxford, the Nutri-Score was taken up in France in 2014 by the team of Serge Hercberg, professor of nutrition at Sorbonne-Paris Nord University. Implemented in law three years later, it is intended to be regularly revised according to developments in scientific research. The changes planned for the end of the year should make it possible to establish a better classification: red meat, the consumption of which, according to nutritional recommendations, must be limited, will obtain lower scores than those of fish or poultry. Conversely, fish products, especially oily fish without added salt or oil, will rise and will be classified mainly in categories A and B.
Other categories should benefit from an improvement in their score, such as unsweetened dairy products or oils with the lowest saturated fat content. Foods high in added sugars will have a lower score than currently, as well as those with a high sugar content. In this new configuration, it is impossible for your sweet breakfast cereals to obtain an A. Finally, so-called “composite” products, such as most prepared meals or even pizzas, will generally be downgraded by one class, going down from A to B, or even from C to D.
A tougher algorithm
“From a global point of view, the algorithm will become stricter, especially for products rich in salts and sugars”, analyzes Serge Hercberg. On the consumer side, these more rigorous rating criteria should allow him to better discriminate between foods in the same category: it will be easier to realize that a bread rich in whole grains, rated A, has better nutritional qualities. than a classic baguette, graded B or C depending on its salt content. In the same way, “very lean meats will remain in A when other, fattier, can be degraded in C or D according to their initial classification”, underlines Chantal Julia, doctor nutritionist, teacher-researcher at the university of Paris 13 and member of the scientific team which participates in the development of Nutri-Score.
Be careful, however: this does not mean that a food obtaining a better score is necessarily good for your health. “In reality, the Nutri-Score never indicates this, recalls Serge Hercberg. It only gives the nutritional quality of a product”. In the opinion of its designers, the tool is one element of evaluation among others, which must be part of a more global diet. “A cheese may be classified E, but that does not mean that you are advised against buying it, insists Professor Jacques Delarue, head of the nutrition department of the Brest CHRU and chairman of the board of directors of the Société française de nutrition. Eating a piece once a week, for example, is not bad for your health!” It is out of the question to prohibit a product because it is orange in the Nutri-Score: it is a simple indication.
Drama in Italy
The fact remains that a “bad” rating can discourage more than one potential buyer. According to a study by Public Health France published in January 2021, 57% of French people said they had already adapted at least one of their “purchasing behavior” taking into account this barometer. What irritate certain manufacturers, even certain regions or countries, outraged to see their local specialties demoted to the bottom of the label.
At the beginning of August, for example, the Italian competition authority (ACGM) asked three companies – including the French retailer Carrefour – to change the packaging of products with a Nutri-Score. In this country where agri-food companies and agricultural unions fiercely display their opposition to the classification, the organization considered the tool possibly misleading, because it is developed “on the basis of an algorithm and on scientific evaluations not universally recognized “, but also because it does not “take into account the needs and the nutritional profile”. On the other side of the Alps, Carrefour will therefore now be prohibited from entering the barometer on own-brand foods ordered in Italy and distributed both in the country and abroad… But also on products foreign gastronomy, such as cheese or charcuterie.
Improvements
In France, the debate still stirs consciences. The Roquefort inter-profession also demanded in October 2021 not to be subject to the logo, asserting respect for gastronomic heritage and tradition. The argument was in line with opponents of Nutri-Score, according to whom the tool would be particularly unfavorable to local products. A study published in May by UFC-Que Choisir however contradicted this position: out of 588 selected items using regional recipes, 26% were classified A, 13% B and 23% C. In the best grades, we could obviously find vegetables, such as lamb’s lettuce from Nantes, but also cooked dishes, such as cassoulet from Castelnaudary.
The tool is nonetheless perfectible by the very admission of its designers. At present, even its new modifications do not take into account the level of additives or transformations of a food. “It’s an open question: today, we do not yet know how to determine on the one hand the relative importance of ultra-processing on health and on the other hand its nutritional qualities. Both play, notes Chantal Julia: A highly processed food can indeed be very little sweet or salty, and therefore be classified A. Conversely, cold meats can be classified D because of their fat and salt composition, even if they are considered as more natural. To be more complete, it is therefore better to refer to the composition located on the back of the packaging.
An always useful reflex, while some brands still avoid including the logo on their products. Because if, still according to the study by Public Health France, the vast majority of French people (94%) said they were in favor of it being indicated on all packaging, its presence is not compulsory. “When the French government adopted the Nutri-Score, only 6 brands applied it. In five years, we have gone from just a few products to more than 800 brands, remarks Serge Hercberg. But certain groups, such as Ferrero, Lactalis, Coca -Cola or Mondelez, still refuse to put it on their packaging”. A choice that may disappear in the coming months, while the European Commission plans to impose nutritional labeling by the end of the year. Among the various logos present in the European Union, the Nutri-Score could be chosen.