Similarly in several European countries, many food products now have a front-of-pack label called a “Nutri-score”, which was first implemented in France. It consists of colour-coded letters from most from most nutritionally healthy (dark green/A) to least healthy (red/E) and was developed to help consumers make more informed choices when purchasing food, says Mathilde Touvier, director of research at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research and co-creator of the logo. To date, 1,500 brands use the label and pressure is now increasing to make it mandatory in Europe.
The Nutri-score came about after several large-scale studies by Touvier and colleagues showing associations between nutritional quality and adverse health outcomes, including cancer. This sparked widespread media debate, she says, leading to public perception that people “were being poisoned” by the food industry, she tells me, which in turn increased pressure on food companies to make changes.
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