NutriScore has updated its algorithm and some products, such as sugar-sweetened yoghurt drinks, now have a worse score. The result is a boon for public health, say researchers – but some brands are not happy.
The Scientific Committee of NutriScore, the front-of-pack nutrition label that is used on a voluntary basis in many European countries, has changed how the score is calculated, subsequently impacting many food and drink manufacturers.
Milk-based drinks, fermented milk-based drinks and plant-based drinks are now categorised as beverages – before the update, they were classified as general food like yoghurts – and as a result, their sweetened forms will now receive a worse score.
One such company that has been impacted is Danone, which, in September, reversed its NutriScore stance and removed the label from its products that have had their score lowered. (However, Danone has decided to continue displaying the NutriScore for its other brands like Taillefine, Jockey, Gervais, Gervita and Fjord because these products have little or no added sugar.
Other products that will be impacted by the revision include producers of sweetened drinks, red meat, sweetened, salted and fatty products.
Amid the revisions to NutriScore, we talk to Serge Hercberg, professor of nutrition at the University of Sorbonne, Paris, who led the team of researchers who created NutriScore, to understand what these changes mean for food and beverage brands and his response to Danone removing the label from its products.
NutriScore’s latest changes aim to create a common, unified and consistent understanding of nutrition among consumers via product labels. “This revision ensures better harmonisation between the information provided by the NutriScore and current public health nutritional recommendations aimed at limiting the consumption of sugary drinks,” Serge Hercberg, research lead and professor of nutrition at Université Paris, told Fi Global Insights.
In addition, the new update to the front-of-pack nutrition label is expected to improve NutriScore’s ability to distinguish between the nutritional qualities of different types of milk, yoghurt drinks, flavoured milk drinks, and plant-based drinks. The revision is designed to help consumers identify those with high sugar content.
According to Hercberg, differentiating between solid and liquid forms is justified.
Citing what the Scientific Committee pointed out in its report, Hercberg said that solid and liquid yoghurt forms do not have the same benefits regarding their potential health effects. While some studies suggest that consumption of non-fat dairy products and fermented milk (yoghurts) may have a favourable impact on lowering the risk of cardio-metabolic diseases (with heterogeneous results), this has not been found for sweetened dairy products, particularly liquid fermented milk-based products.
“This new classification for these products impacting Danone (as other food companies) is therefore fully justified and useful for consumers, enabling them to judge the differences in nutritional quality linked to the differences in sugar content of the products,” said Hercberg.
“Evidence suggests that liquid forms are not associated with the same beneficial effects as solid fermented products,” Hercberg said. “Some studies also suggest that free sugars added to drinkable yoghurts may be significantly more unfavourable than those added to solid yoghurts,” Hercberg added.
Apart from the differences in the satiating effects of liquid forms compared with solid forms, it is important to consider how consumers use these products. “Drinkable yoghurts are beverages,” said Hercberg. Unlike solid yoghurts, generally consumed at the end of a meal, drinkable yoghurts are frequently consumed outside of mealtimes.
Some yoghurts have been designed to be easy to consume without the need for spoons for on-the-go consumption. Attractive sweet-flavoured forms can also be particularly appealing to children and teenagers and can be considered liquid snacks.
“Moreover, for some of these products, the promotion of [health claims] reinforced by a good NutriScore classification gives the false impression that they have a health benefit, which is absolutely not true for the sweetest forms, whose consumption should be limited from a health point of view,” said Hercberg.
Hercberg said some products’ packaging suggests potential health benefits, such as “rich in vitamin D”; “rich in calcium, good for children’s growth”; “covers one-third of vitamin D requirements”; “contains probiotics”; “rich in proteins”; and “immune system”.
This may give consumers the feeling that they can be consumed in large quantities, despite the high levels of sugar they contain.
With the revision, which classifies the sweetened forms of Danone’s products as D or E, Hercberg said consumers now may have access to information that reminds them that these products can be part of a balanced diet, provided they are not consumed in large quantities and frequently – as the previous favourable NutriScore classification might have suggested.
“So, with the update of the NutriScore – criticised by Danone – consumers can, with full knowledge, orient their choices towards the least sweet forms or limit consumption of the sweetest forms if they wish to consume them,” he added.
According to Hercberg, none of the arguments put forward by Danone to justify its withdrawal of NutriScore is acceptable from a public health point of view.
“Those [arguments] put forward are non-scientific criticisms with no real basis and they attempt to conceal the real reason for Danone’s withdrawal: the fear of a negative impact on the sale of these products,” Hercberg added.
Considered as trying to cast doubt on the work of scientists, Hercberg said Danone falls in the camp of the lobbies that have already complained about the revision of the NutriScore.
“In the interests of consumers, it would have been desirable for Danone to play the game of nutritional transparency to the end and instead work to improve the nutritional quality of its drinking yoghurts and plant-based drinks by reducing their sugar content,” added Hercberg.
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