The Nutri-Score at a glance

Seeing at a glance how balanced the fruit yoghurt or crunchy muesli is? Not possible in the supermarket. This is because the nutritional value declarations with relevant information on sugar, fat or salt are usually hidden in the small print on the back of the packaging and difficult to interpret for non-experts. This contributes to the fact that many people eat unhealthy food - and more than half of all adults and about one in five schoolchildren in the EU are overweight or even obese.

Traffic light colours make shopping easier

Scientific studies prove: Nutrition labels on the front of the package highlighted in traffic light colours are the most understandable. They can help people shop more healthily. Doctors' associations, health insurance companies and consumer organisations have for some time already been calling for food traffic lights. However, the introduction of an obligatory traffic light system throughout Europe failed in 2010 due to massive resistance from the food industry. In 2017, the Nutri-Score was developed in France and has been on the advance in Europe. In addition to France, the model is or will be recommended as a voluntary labelling scheme in Belgium, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and other countries are considering following suit.

Mandatory front-of-pack labelling in the EU

In the supermarket, consumers must be able to see at a glance how balanced a product is. The Nutri-Score is the most comprehensible model of nutritional labelling that exists at the moment and it is gaining increasing support throughout Europe. For Nutri-Score to be fully effective, voluntary labelling is not enough. foodwatch is therefore calling for EU-wide mandatory front-of-pack labelling of food with Nutri-Score!