Yasmina Kattou
It is a new version of the Nutri-Score that customers will discover from 2023. The European steering committee must give manufacturers a timetable at the end of the year to update their labels. This new notation will be more severe for foods high in sugar or bad fat.
This is a point on which the French are paying more and more attention while shopping. The Nutri-Score has become essential on the shelves. And for the year 2023, the latter will change, or rather its method of calculation will change. The European steering committee must give manufacturers a timetable at the end of the year to update their labels. These changes will be made to follow the recommendations of the international scientific committee for monitoring Nutri-score, which wants more severity for foods high in sugar or bad fat.
The objective remains the same: to help consumers see more clearly between foods from the same family. For example, olive and walnut oil, which are rich in omega three and therefore good for health, will go from a C rating to a B rating, while sunflower oil, which is too fatty, will remain rated D. less salty cheeses will also be rated less severely, especially Emmental. There will also be a difference between the breads. Wholemeal flours, less refined, with a high fiber content, will be valued.
Dangerous additives, still not included in the calculation
On the other hand, the new Nutri-Score will still not take additives into account. “It would be better in fact for there to be a list of additives available to the consumer,” explains Parisian nutritionist Jacques Ricker, who points out that integrating additives into the calculation would be too complicated.
But scientists are already studying another possibility for a new system update in a few years. Regardless of the rating, the consumer could see a black band appear around ultra-processed products and therefore containing additives, to alert customers.