Children’s nutrition specialists raise concerns regarding Nutri-Score

15 December 2020

Dutch consultancy Voedingsjungle, specialising in children’s nutrition, has criticised front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling schemes with across-the-board algorithms such as Nutri-Score, “whereby a dark green ‘A’ ranking does not neccessarily mean a healthy choice”.

Nutri-Score, a FOP nutrition labelling scheme backed by a number of Member States and food producers including France, Switzerland, Belgiums, and Nestle, Danone, Kellogg, would allow certain junk food products to be reformulated in order to receive a dark green ‘A’ ranking, which is for the healthies products.

For example, a product may receive a highest possible Nutri-Score because of its fibre (more than 4.7g per 100g) and protein content (more than 8g per 100g), disregard how much sodium it contains.

The Dutch consultancy argues that the across-the-board algorithm does not take into account the role of each food products in nutritional guidelines. Thus, it ranks nutritious foods like breads and vegetables and indulgent foods such as candies and cookies the same way. They call for FOP labels using category specific criteria instead.

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