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Nutri-Score
We’ve all been there before. You just need to “pop” to the shops after work. With an appetite bigger than your shopping list, you head for the nearest supermarket. And now you’re standing in front of a shelf with a huge selection of products, but you’re not sure what exactly to put in your basket, especially because you know your diet should be as healthy and balanced as possible. With such an abundance of food, it’s not easy to keep track of it all. Which products are “healthy”? What information should I use as a guide? That’s where food labels like Nutri-Score come in. Has this colourful traffic light system ever caught your eye? Nutri-Score is designed to help you easily compare foods in the same category at a glance. In this article, we put the label under the microscope, so you know what to look out for next time you go shopping.
What is Nutri-Score?
The ingredients list and nutrition label on food packaging usually give us detailed information about what the product contains and how you should judge its quality. But the information on processed products is not easy to interpret, especially if you don’t want to spend hours studying and comparing the information. Nutri-Score is a tool for assessing the nutritional value of a product. It was developed by French scientists and has appeared on packaged foods in France since 2017. Since then, more and more European countries have introduced the label, including Switzerland. Since 2019, the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (BLV) has advocated the introduction of Nutri-Score, but not all foods have one as food labelling is currently voluntary for manufacturers.
Transparency and comparability are at the heart of Nutri-Score. For us consumers, the label is designed to help us compare products without having to consult the ingredients list or nutrition label. With the help of a scientifically backed formula, positive and negative aspects of a product’s ingredients per 100 g or 100 ml are offset against each other.
The positive aspects include the content of:
- Fruits, vegetables, pulses, nuts, certain oils
- Dietary fibres
- Proteins
- The negative aspects include the content of:
- Sugar
- Salt
- Saturated fatty acids
The coloured scale is simply a visual representation of the resulting score.
How Nutri-Score works
The coloured scale, which is made up of five colours, indicates whether a food is considered balanced. A product is considered balanced if the letter A is in a dark green box. If the product is labelled with a C in a yellow box, the positive and negative aspects roughly balance each other out. However, if the product is labelled with an E in a red box, it is considered unbalanced. As consumers, this should help us choose the healthier product within a category. Only processed products with several ingredients are labelled. For example, apple sauce is labelled, but an apple is not.
Click here for a video explaining Nutri-Score (in German):
Nutri-Score: how does it work? (youtube.com)
This is what you need to watch out for
Does Nutri-Score act as a nutritional recommendation? Not quite. It’s not actually that simple. The scale will help you if you are standing in front of the refrigerated section and are not sure which of the many yoghurts are considered balanced. But if you want to compare yoghurt with a cereal bar, Nutri-Score won’t get you anywhere. The scale does not show you what is right or wrong, allowed or not allowed or how much and how often you should eat a certain product. The score therefore does not give you a complete evaluation of the product.
Remember: Nutri-Score allows you to compare foods within a category. For example, a yoghurt labelled green performs better from a health point of view than a yoghurt labelled yellow or red.
In France, where Nutri-Score was first introduced, 90% of consumers are in favour of the scale and would like to see it become mandatory. 57% even said they had changed at least one of their shopping habits as a result of Nutri-Score. Sounds rather promising, doesn’t it? Nevertheless, you should bear some things in mind when analysing the Nutri-Score.
Nutri-Score does not evaluate how a product will be prepared. For example, frozen fries might be labelled with a green score, as they are usually sold unsalted and rarely pre-fried. If you compare fries with other frozen potato products that contain more salt and fat, frozen fries perform better. How the food is eventually prepared at home (deep-fried in oil or baked in the oven) is in the hands of the consumer.
Another aspect that Nutri-Score does not take into account is the quality of the ingredients. Therefore, it does not tell you about organic or fair-trade raw materials. In addition, Nutri-Score overlooks other points that may influence a holistic assessment of a product. The conditions under which the animals are kept (free-range or caged), the type of transport (air, sea, etc.), the geographical origin of products (local or non-local) and the degree of processing are not included in the calculation of the Nutri-Score. Additives are also not taken into account to calculate the Nutri-Score.
What happens now?
Nutri-Score is constantly being developed internationally in co-operation with other countries such as Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. A transnational steering group, which was founded at the beginning of 2021, is working on introducing the label in various countries and helping companies implement it. A scientific committee was also established with the aim of constantly reviewing the formula’s development. Switzerland is part of the steering group and the scientific committee. In spring 2023, for example, the committee voted in favour of applying the label to beverages.
Conclusion
The Nutri-Score food label is a simple way to quickly compare products in the same category. However, it does not serve as an absolute recommendation. In general, you should make sure you are well informed about labels like Nutri-Score and what exactly they represent. What do they take into account and what do they overlook? What are their benefits and limitations?
For advice on a balanced and healthy diet, you can use the food pyramid as a guide.
References
BLV (2023). Nutri-Score: Einfach und ausgewogen essen. Available at: https://www.blv.admin.ch/blv/de/home/lebensmittel-und-ernaehrung/ernaehrung/nutri-score.html#-1547432464
SGE (2021). Lebensmittel-Kennzeichnung. Tabula, Zeitschrift der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Ernährung SGE. 4(21).
SVDE (2022). Nutri-Score – Einfach vergleichen und bewusster einkaufen. Available at: https://svde-asdd.ch/zeitschrift/archiv-nutri-info/archiv-2022/
