The European Group of Scientists and Health Professionals in Support of NutriScore (GESHPSN) publishes a scientific report urging the European Commission to overcome the stalemate induced by the lobby and protect the public health of citizens by approving the NutriScore as soon as possible as a single European FOPNL system (Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling). (1)
NutriScore, the commitments made by the European Commission.
The European Commission, under the strategy ‘Farm to fork‘ (2021), pledged to propose a logo with summary nutrition information on the front of labels of all foods in the EU by 2023. (2) Following this announcement, the report recalls, the lobby by Big Food worked hard to prevent the NutriScore from being chosen as the single reference logo in the EU, that is, to delay its mandatory application. Or again, to propose an alternative logo such as the Nutri-(dis)Inform battery, which is completely devoid of application experience as well as scientific basis, as well as patently useless for consumers and public health (3,4).
The anti-NutriScore lobbies are supported by big industries that continue to externalize on public health the costs of foods with poor nutritional profiles. Ferrero at the forefront, but also Lactalis, Coca-Cola, Mars, Mondelez, Kraft, etc. With instrumental support from some agricultural confederations, such as Coldiretti in Italy and COPA-COGECA at the EU level. These lobbying actions have been and are still being conveyed at the level of European structures by various political parties and politicians close to them, as well as by the Italian government, which continues to instrumentalize NutriScore as a ‘plot’ by Europe against Made in Italy products.
Lobbying pressure
Le fake news propagated by lobbyists, including through ministers such as Italy’s Francesco Lollobrigida, (5) have been widely taken up by the mainstream media to alter the meaning of an instrument designed to protect public health and consumers. And the political pressure has been so effective that it has paralyzed the European Commission, which in fact has not kept its own commitments to adopt the NutriScore within the current legislative term (due to expire in spring 2024).
Strong scientific arguments, adoption by large member states such as Germany, France and Spain, and the expression of strong social will in favor of the NutriScore (by consumer groups, doctors and health professionals, etc.) were not enough. So much so that some Commission representatives have confessed the difficulty of adopting the NutriScore as a mandatory nutrition logo in the EU because it is too ‘polarizing’.
Public health vs. junk food
There is no scientific argument or public health reason for the European Commission’simpasse. Quite simply, the Nutri-Score is not compatible with the business-as-usual of large industries that have no intention of correcting the recipes and nutritional profiles of obesogenic products, nor of giving up their aggressive marketing.
The political responsibility of the Ursula Von der Leyen-led Commission is even more serious where one considers WHO Europe’s alarming data on the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in the Old Continent. (6) A condemnation of the health and well-being of present and future generations, in defiance of UN 2030 agenda commitments. #SDG3, Ensure Health and Well-being.
NutriScore, a report signed by 320 scientists
320 scientists and professionals of health working in the fields of nutrition, obesity, public health, preventive medicine, endocrinology, cancer, cardiology, pediatrics, psychology, European law, and marketing social – brought together as part of the ‘Group of European Scientists and Health Professionals Supporting NutriScore’ – have therefore mobilized to make their voices heard in the ongoing debate with a meaty report.
The 61-page scientific report, with 105 bibliographical references, published on March 11, 2023, has a very clear title: ‘Why the European Commission should choose the Nutri-Score nutrition logo-a public health tool based on rigorous scientific evidence-as a harmonized, mandatory nutrition logo for Europe.’ And here’s why.
1) The scientific evidence
More than a hundred scientific studies conducted in some 20 countries and published in peer-reviewed international journals have shown over the past decade:
- the validity of the algorithm used to calculate the Nutri-Score, also based on large cohort studies involving more than 500,000 subjects with long-term follow-up,
- the greater effectiveness of NutriScore, compared to other forms of FOPNL, in helping consumers steer their choices toward foods of better nutritional quality and therefore more conducive to health. Through data collected in virtual supermarkets, experimental stores and real supermarkets).
2) An agile algorithm
Recent updates to the Nutri-Score algorithm by a scientific committee of independent European experts has corrected some of its ‘limitations’ identified during its implementation. And so to further improve its consistency with current public health nutrition recommendations (7,8).
3) The support of European research
The European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC) report, published in September 2022, clearly concludes that consumers, including low-income consumers, prefer simple, colorful evaluative logos (such as Nutri-Score) over more complex, non-evaluative monochrome logos (such as Nutrinform). (9)
4) The clear outcome of the public consultation
The results of the public consultation launched by the EC between December 2021 and March 2022 have shown that most consumer organizations and NGOs, citizens, research and educational institutions, and public health authorities are overwhelmingly in favor of a nutrition logo that provides graded information on the overall nutritional quality of food (which is fully in line with the characteristics of the Nutri-Score).
5) The support of scientists and consumers
Supporting the adoption of the NutriScore were many European scientific and consumer associations, the report recalls. These include the European Public Health Association (EUPHA), the European Group on Childhood Obesity (ECOG), the European Heart Network (EHN), the European Academy of Pediatrics, theUnited European Gastroenterology, and many consumer associations, including the European Bureau of Consumer Unions (BEUC), which brings together 46 independent consumer organizations from 32 European countries, as well as NGOs such as FoodWatch (present in several European countries).
6) The adoption of NutriScore in 7 countries.
NutriScore has already been adopted and implemented in 7 European countries (France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland). Demonstrating the feasibility of its deployment is the strong support of consumers who use it widely and the impact on food sales in supermarkets in line with its goals.
Clarifications that dismantle instrumental criticism
The report also provides scientific answers to 7 questions that may be legitimately raised about NutriScore, but which are often misused and overused by lobbyists to try to discredit Nutri-Score. Namely, because the algorithm:
– Does not penalize ultra-processed foods,
– Is calculated on 100g/100ml and not per serving,
– does not consider the totality of nutritional values and food components of potential interest,
– does not replace general nutrition and public health recommendations,
– Does not penalize traditional and local foods, such as PDOs and PGIs, (10)
– Is not a threat to the Mediterranean diet, (11)
– Why the NutrInform battery is a meaningless alternative.
Europe protects the population
This comprehensive report on NutriScore-written and supported by a large number of scientists and health professionals from academia-aims to remind European authorities that their decision to implement a mandatory nutrition logo for Europe must be based on science and public health. Without yielding to pressure from lobbies that advocate economic interests in the opposite direction.
For this reason, the report’s authors (and the supporting committee of international experts working in this field) are calling on the Commission to propose legislation as soon as possible to adopt mandatory EU-wide interpretative nutrition labeling based on science, as is the case with the Nutri-Score.
A crucial piece of European health policies
It is clear that the adoption of the Nutri-Score in Europe will help European consumers move toward more nutritionally favorable food choices and reduce the risk of developing diet-related chronic diseases, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and cancer, which are public health problems with a significant human, social, and economic cost throughout Europe.
While the mandatory affixation of a nutritional logo such as the Nutri-Score on the front of all food labels will not be enough by itself to solve all nutrition-related problems, it will help increase awareness of food choices and improve the nutritional status of the population (as has been scientifically proven by numerous studies). The Nutri-Score is based on solid scientific evidence and may be used to develop other measures, such as restrictions on junk food marketing, in the context of effective public health nutrition policy.
In practice, this simple measure is important both to help consumers make healthier food choices at the time of purchase and to stimulate industry to improve the nutritional profiles of foods.
Marta Strinati and Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) EU scientists & health professionals for Nutri-Score. ‘Why the European Commission must choose the Nutri-Score nutrition label – a public health tool based in rigorous scientific evidence – as the harmonized mandatory nutrition label for Europe’. 11.5.23. https://nutriscore-europe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/NS_rapport-EU-V10_230202.pdf
(2) Dario Dongo. Farm to Fork, Nutri-Score and product reformulation. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 25.10.21
(3) Dario Dongo. NutrInform Battery, the battery label. An Italian disgrace. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 10.11.20
(4) Dario Dongo. NutriScore and Nutriform, Professor Serge Hercberg provides clarity. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 20.4.23
(5) Dario Dongo. NutriScore professor Serge Hercberg corrects Italian minister’s fake news. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 8.3.23
(6) Sabrina Bergamini, Dario Dongo. Obesity, childhood obesity, and marketing. WHO Europe 2022 Report. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 16.6.22
(7) Dario Dongo. NutriScore, evolution of the science-based algorithm. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 1.8.22
(8) Dario Dongo. NutriScore, algorithm update for beverages. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 25.4.23
(9) Dario Dongo, Andrea Adelmo Della Penna. European Commission, research confirms NutriScore approach. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 14.9.22
(10) Dario Dongo. NutriScore, full marks to local products. And food quality improves. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 14.4.23
(11) Italian scientific study confirms the effectiveness of NutriScore. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 7.1.23