The European Commission has recently announced its intention to propose a harmonised, mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling to “empower consumers to make informed, healthy and sustainable food choices”. But an EU-wide Nutri-Score solution is yet to get a green light.
Obesity has been identified as a risk factor for severe forms of the COVID-19 disease, making the call for supporting healthy nutrition even more pressing.
Indeed, overweight and obesity are increasing at a rapid rate in most of EU member states, affecting about half of the adult population. According to European Commission figures, over 950,000 deaths and over 16 million years of life lost are attributable to dietary risks due to unhealthy diets.
The labelling option
For Emma Calvert, of the European consumer organisation (BEUC), this situation could be improved by a better labelling system across Europe.
Emma Calvert, Food policy officer at BEUC: “The healthier choice is really not the easier choice” (in English)
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“At the moment, for consumers, the healthier choice is really not the easier choice. Nutritional information is really important in helping to make that choice an easier choice.”
The current EU legislation provides that pre-packed foods should bear a nutrition declaration on the back of food packaging. There is also a possibility, but no obligation, for a front-of-pack voluntary repetition.
‘Nutri-Score’ as a model?
Back in 2008, when a first discussion on these rules was held, the consumers’ organisation BEUC pleaded for a mandatory front-of-package colour-coded system. However, this ‘traffic light’ labelling failed to get the support of the European Parliament’s public health committee, which rejected it by two votes.
French MEP Michèle Rivasi was amongst the voters. She recalls the pressure exerted on MEPs by food lobbies.
Michèle Rivasi, MEP – Greens/EFA, France: “The 2010 traffic light experience” (in French)
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“At that time, agribusiness lobbies put pressure on MEPs saying: if you adopt the traffic light, we will close factories which manufacture some food products. So the pressure was linked to jobs rather than public health.”
But the idea of a colour-coded system was not abandoned, because it is the best existing mechanism to support consumer choice, according to BEUC.
Emma Calvert, Food policy officer at BEUC : “European citizen initiative” (in English)
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“And the reason why we, BEUC, and other consumer organisations, support Nutri-Score is that we believe that it’s currently the best performing scheme in helping consumers to make a more informed, healthier choice.”
Nutri-Score is more elaborate than the traffic light envisaged in 2010. Developed in 2014 by French professor Serge Hercberg and his team, it is a five colour system ranging from dark green, for food products with the highest nutritional quality, to dark orange, for products with lower nutritional quality, associated with letters from A to E. The algorithm to calculate the nutritional score considers both negative (sugars, saturated fats, salt and calories) and positive elements (protein, fibre, fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts).
Hercberg believes that the European Commission should support his scheme.
Serge Hercberg, Professor of Nutrition, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord: “No French benefit” (in French)
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“We have no commercial interest, we have absolutely no benefit, we simply consider that this is a public health tool which is endorsed by many scientific studies. That is why we defend it – not because we created it, and not because it’s from France.”
So far, Nutri-Score has been adopted in France (2017), Spain (2018), Belgium and the Netherlands (2019), Germany and Luxembourg (2020).
EU institutions are divided
In April 2020, MEP Michèle Rivasi and some of her colleagues from other political parties wrote to the European Commission to send the institution a clear message: make labelling mandatory.
Michèle Rivasi, MEP – Greens/EFA, France: “Make labelling mandatory” (in French)
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“By now, Nutri-Score or food labelling must absolutely be mandatory in all countries. Because, even if some [countries] have adopted it, it is still not mandatory. Thus, so far only about 25 per cent of supermarket products carry this label.”
But some countries remain opposed to the Nutri-Score system.
Italy, jointly with seven other countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Latvia and Romania) co-signed a non-paper in September 2020 to oppose colour-codes that “have not shown to be effective in helping consumers to evaluate the real nutritional quality/value of food”.
Italian MEP Salvatore De Meo, from Forza Italia, says that the Nutri-Score should not be made compulsory for all.
Salvatore De Meo, MEP – EPP, Italy: “Not in favour of a mandatory system” (in Italian)
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“We, Italians, are very concerned about this system, often referred to in various strategies, which is the Nutri-Score system, a French system already adopted on a voluntary basis in some European countries. Instead, we would like a harmonised system and above all we intend it to be a voluntary system, because we have many doubts about the Nutri-Score system which can generate confusion for consumers.”
MEP De Meo says that this system is overly simplistic and would therefore unfairly penalize traditional Italian products, such as olive oil or Parmesan cheese, because of their high fat content.
Salvatore De Meo, MEP – EPP, Ital : “Take Italian food characteristics into account” (in Italian)
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“We must defend the territorial characteristics, the [different] diets – certainly the Italian diet, jointly with the ones from other Mediterranean countries, are classified among the best countries. This is why we cannot accept that some products – olive oil, Parmesan – are classified in a negative way when, in reality, we know very well their beneficial aspects in the food system – so it is not fair that the consumer should consider them negatively.”
Italy has offered to use instead its Nutrinform mechanism, which uses battery symbols to indicate the percentages of energy, fats and sugars.
Traditional food stigmatised?
The countries opposed to Nutri-Score call for the specificities of each member states’ food culture to be considered.
The association of EU farmers Copa-Cogeca also opposes the colour-code system on the basis that it would stigmatise some products, explains Bruno Menne, policy adviser at Copa-Cogeca.
Bruno Menne, Policy Adviser at Copa-Cogeca : “Not a colour-code system” (in French)
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“We are in favour of a harmonised system at a European level, but we believe that it should not be based on a colour code system that discriminates certain products against others.”
This over-simplistic system would be detrimental to some products that benefit from an indication of origin, adds Menne.
Bruno Menne, Policy Adviser at Copa-Cogeca : “Indications of origin in danger” (in French)
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“In order to benefit from these quality labels, the products carrying a geographical indication must meet a series of criteria. And so, if we have a system that discriminates certain products based on particular nutrients, such as the quantity of fat, sugar or salt, without taking the rest into account, we will end up with an indication of origin that will have a bad Nutri-Score – in which case, they won’t be able to change and adapt, because otherwise, they will lose their label.”
The proposal for harmonised mandatory front-of-packing nutrition labelling is foreseen by the fourth quarter of 2022, within the framework of the EU’s Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy. It will be preceded by an impact assessment and a stakeholder consultation.
This means that the lobbies’ battle is far from over.
- Author: Sophie Petitjean, Euranet Plus News Agency
