Portugal backpedals on Nutri-score food labelling system

The Lisbon government clarified on Tuesday (11 June) that the previous executive’s recommendation to adopt the controversial traffic light food labelling system had been issued without proper consultation with food authorities.

Portugal’s former socialist government proposed on 5 April to adopt the front-of-pack labelling Nutri-score, a traffic light labelling system that ranks foods according to their nutritional value calculated on a standard portion. 

The scheme ranges from A-green, indicating the healthiest grade, to E-red. 

But the new centre-right government, led by Luís Montenegro, has questioned the legality of the previous cabinet’s move.

On Tuesday, the Agriculture ministry published a decree expressing “reservations” about the traffic light system and clarifying that food labelling is the responsibility of the General Directorate of Food and Veterinary (DGAV), which had not been consulted in the case of the former decree. 

The DGAV, the ministry text pointed out, “has expressed reservations” on the Nutriscore, “which leads to confusing classifications without considering the model of Portuguese food products”.

The system was first introduced in France in 2017, and Portugal was to become the eighth European country to endorse it, after Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

However, the implementation of Nutri-score remains a controversial issue in the EU.  

A European Commission study concluded in 2020 that systems using colour coding combined with a grade, such as Nutri-score, were the best fit to inspire a forthcoming proposal for an EU-wide labelling scheme. 

While the initiative was due by the end of 2022, the EU executive has delayed it for fear of polarising the debate ahead of this June’s European Parliament elections. 

Italy, the Nutri-score’s loudest opponent, has promoted an alternative system called Nutrinform, which shows the percentage of nutrients and energy without ranking the product. 

[Edited by Angelo Di Mambro and Zoran Radosavljevic]

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