France improves the Nutri-Score food label in the EU adoption delays

Intensive opposition of member states such as Italy prevents the system from becoming a EU standard

France has officially updated its Nutri-Score food labeling system and strengthened national support for the color-coded nutritional manual, although plans for EU-wide implementation in Brussels are planned.

Five French ministers, including Health Minister Catherine Vautrin and Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau, have signed a decree that approved an updated version of the algorithm behind Nutri score.

The changes aim to offer buyers clearer, more precise nutrition data and at the same time encourage manufacturers to improve the quality of their products.

The new version of Nutri score makes the sugar and salt content better, distinguishes between wholemeal and refined grain and adapts the values ​​for certain fats and oils.

The European Commission apparently has plans for the commitment of the Nutri Score food packaging label in the entire EU.

The French system was generally regarded as the leader that is to be taken over for food packaging in the entire block, but the Commission did not manage to propose laws on this topic, partly due to the intensive opposition of some Member States.

“I do not see that the Commission will put a legislative text on the table in the coming years,” said a European diplomatic source Radio Francewhich published an investigation of the edition in March.

Read more: Supermarket products “cheaper but less healthy”.

It contained a document from a meeting between the general director for agriculture in the European Commission and the Schwarz Group, owner of Lidl, in which the Commission said that the EU proposal will “copy/insert an existing system”. The Commission said that she did not want to comment on documents that were leaked through.

Nutri score is located on the front of the food packaging, with the aim of helping consumers to meet healthier food. It uses letters A to E and five colors to categorize products based on important ingredients such as sugar, fat, salt and protein.

The nutrition product would – green and least classify red.

It was founded in 2017 by a team of researchers from the Sorbonne-Paris North University and was taken over by Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland on a voluntary basis.

Only the legislation of the European Commission would make the system mandatory in the Member States.

In 2020, the Commission presented its “Farm to Fork” strategy as part of its green deal. The idea was to create a harmonized and mandatory nutritional system before packing by the end of 2022.

Food labeling system as “hostile” as “hostile” as “hostile”

Although the MEPs in principle recommend the idea of ​​mandatory nutrition logos in 2021 and the European auditing court in a report, no legislation was proposed.

The plans confronted strong Member States, especially Italy, which criticized the food label as anti-Italian and particularly hostile to meat, cheese and olive oils.

The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has expressed her opposition to Nutri score and said that “Food sovereignty is a priority” for her government.

There were 17 sessions between the European Commission and Lobbies officers who were against the Nutri score compared to two meetings with civil society groups, as the examination of Radio France found.

Nutri-Score creator Serge Hercberg warned In December 2024, agricultural food lobbies who spoke out against the measures endangered the health of Europeans.

In France, too, the system has not enjoyed complete support. Plans to change his calculation method in 2023 led to the French food giant Danone Remove The labels of its drinkable yoghurts at the end of 2024.

Read more: Which fruit, vegetables and fish are in France in France in March?

Nutri score is not mentioned in the “Vision for Agriculture and Food” published in February 2025.

In a press conference on March 4, a spokesman for the European Commission avoided the question of whether the Nutri-Score idea had been reduced and said that the Commission had “worked in detail on food identification” and stated the “challenges” of achieving “common solutions”.