Nutri-Score: Evidence of the effectiveness of the French front-of-pack nutrition label

Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: May 29, 2017 | Revision accepted: August 21, 2017

Background

In order to tackle the growing increase in nutrition-related conditions, government-led strategies and policies have introduced multifaceted interventions aiming at improving the diet in the population [1-5]. Among the variety of possible interventions, Front-Of-Pack (FOP) nutrition labels have received growing attention from public authorities and learned societies [4, 6].

FOP nutrition labels are considered a helpful guidance for consumers towards healthier food choices at the point of purchase [7-9]. Moreover, they are thought to be incentives for manufacturers to reformulate their products towards healthier compositions, which would be materialized on the FOP label.

Since 2001, France has set a public health nutrition policy, the Programme National Nutrition Santé (PNNS, French Nutrition and Health Program) which combines laws, regulations and incentives in the field of nutrition (diet and physical activity) to improve the population’s health status [10, 11]. Following a report by the Minister of Health to the president of the PNNS in 2014 – which included 15 public health measures [6] – the principle of a FOP nutrition label was included in the Health law, enacted in January, 2016 [12]. The Nutri-Score (also known in its former version as the 5-Colour Nutrition label, 5-CNL) was finally selected after comparison tests against several labels proposed by industry or retailers in March 2017, and the EU was notified of the implementation of this label in the following month.

This manuscript retraces the elements that led the French health authorities to select the Nutri-Score.

Abstract

France recently decided to implement a newly developed 5 colour Front-of-Pack (FOP) nutrition labelling, “Nutri-Score” to orient consumers towards healthier food choices at the point of purchase and as an incentive for manufacturers to reformulate their products towards healthier compositions. Results of validation studies suggest that the Food Standards Agency nutrient profiling system (FSA-NPS) underlying the Nutri-Score can adequately characterize the nutritional quality of foods, and that an individual score (FSA-NPS dietary index, FSA-NPS DI) based on the FSA score of the foods consumed can adequately summarize the nutritional quality of the diet. Moreover, the FSA-NPS DI is associated with chronic diseases onset. The format of the Nutri-Score appears well-perceived and understood. Finally, the Nutri-Score was associated with a higher nutritional quality of purchases in experimental and large scale trials. Altogether, these elements tend to corroborate the Nutri-Score as an efficient tool in public health nutrition.

Keywords: front-of-pack labelling, nutrient profiling systems, validation, public health policies

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