After years of bickering, Nutri-Score gets the green light. State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen (Public Health, CU) designates the bar with letters and colors as the official Dutch food choice logo, despite criticism from nutrition experts. He expects it to help consumers make healthier choices.
The color bar on products – a green A is healthy, a red E is unhealthy – has been seen in supermarkets for a few years now. Many manufacturers already use it and Albert Heijn is experimenting with it on a large scale. This was against the will of the State Secretary, because the originally French logo did not yet fit in well with the Wheel of Five, which shows which products fit into a healthy diet. Products that are healthy according to the nutritional guidelines sometimes score poorly. While certain products that fall outside the Wheel of Five actually get a good score.
The algorithm, the calculation behind Nutri-Score, therefore had to be adjusted first, according to Van Ooijen. An international scientific committee has worked on it in recent years, so that the scores now correspond better with the Wheel of Five. After that, Van Ooijen wanted to await the evaluation of the Health Council, which provides independent scientific advice.
Nutri-Score can still do better, says Van Ooijen. For example, there is no distinction yet between white rice and healthier whole-grain varieties. Many vegetable oils and margarines have to score higher, because unsaturated fat is in the Wheel of Five. But he thinks the logo is good enough to introduce now, four years after his predecessor Paul Blokhuis announced it. In a letter to parliament on Tuesday, he writes that Nutri-Score may be used officially from 1 January 2024. The government logo should then appear on many more products.
Not the holy grail
Van Ooijen does not see Nutri-Score as the holy grail, but as an addition to the Wheel of Five. He follows the Health Council in this, which expects that a visually strong logo will mainly help people who eat unhealthy food and who do not really know what healthier choices are. A red E is a clear signal. In front of the shelf, you immediately see the differences between, for example, breakfast cereals with a C, D or E. Organizations such as the Consumers’ Association and Foodwatch would therefore like to see the logo widely introduced quickly.
Many nutrition experts are still against it, because incongruous scores detract from the Wheel of Five. They also fear that the algorithm, the sum of good and bad ingredients, gives companies too much room to achieve favorable scores with relatively high amounts of sugar, salt and fat. For example, a pizza can get a higher score if it contains extra fiber. Products can also have a poorer composition and still score well: such as sugary dairy desserts. Companies say that Nutri-Score actually encourages products to be made healthier.
As long as the old algorithm is still available in stores alongside the modified algorithm (until the end of 2025), comparable products with different scores may be available in stores. Van Ooijen wants to clear up this confusion with information.
Read also: Why Nutri-Score and Wheel of Five will never match
The Health Council believes that Nutri-Score should be on all products. But Van Ooijen cannot make the government logo mandatory as long as there are no European rules. Italy, for example, is adamantly against because products such as olive oil and Parma ham score poorly.