Belgium puts Nutriscore labelling back on EU agenda

Belgium’s EU Council presidency will hold a scientific symposium in April on the controversial nutritional labelling of food to “share experiences” on the system, reopening the debate between member states that use it and those opposing its adoption at the EU level.

The idea is to take stock and “share experiences with diverse perspectives on a voluntary front-of-pack labelling system already introduced in some EU countries”, according to the presidency programme.

The symposium, scheduled for 25 April, “will be organised at the expert level”, EU presidency sources told Euractiv.

Launched in France in 2017, Nutri-score is a colour-coded labelling system, from A-green, denoting the ‘healthiest’, to E-red, which ranks foods according to their nutritional value, calculated on a standard portion.

From the end of 2023 a new algorithm applies, with stricter parameters for milk and breakfast cereals, while olive oil and other fats of vegetable origin gain points compared to the previous ranking.

In the action plan accompanying the EU’s flagship food policy strategy “Farm to Fork”, the European Commission announced a mandatory bloc-wide nutritional labelling of food by the end of 2022.

According to a 2020 Commission study, labels using colour-coding in combination with a graded indicator, such as Nutriscore, are the best placed candidate to inspire the EU-wide model.

But, like other initiatives aimed at “facilitating the shift to healthy, sustainable diets” – as the “Farm to Fork” Action Plan puts it – the legislative proposal has been postponed.

Commission officials said at the end of 2022 that the delay was meant to avoid excessive polarisation of the debate, as the file would be discussed in the European Parliament close to the EU elections due in June. Since then, the topic has been off the table.

The Belgian initiative might bring it back under the spotlight.

Nutriscore is a highly divisive issue, as the French scheme is just one of the nutritional labelling systems currently in use in Europe. Other examples are the “Keyhole” in the Nordic countries and the “Heart Symbol” in Finland.

Belgium is part of the international coalition for the governance of Nutriscore, with five other member states plus Switzerland, trying to make the system compatible with the different national dietary guidelines.

Italy, the most vocal opponent of Nutriscore, is pushing an alternative scheme called “nutrinform battery”. At a 2020 debate among agriculture ministers, Rome won the support of six other EU countries.

In November 2022, during his first meeting with his EU counterparts, Italian Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida reiterated his aversion to the Nutri-score.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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