Does the Nutri-Score 2023 algorithm provide consistent classification across European food supplies? A cross-sectional study using branded food composition data from 14 countries

Description

Chantal Julia and colleagues test whether the updated Nutri-Score label classifies foods consistently across Europe's varied food supplies. Nutri-Score is a color-coded front-of-pack label grading overall nutritional value. Its twenty twenty-three update matched dietary guidelines in adopting countries, but wider geographical application was uninvestigated. The team obtained branded food composition data from fourteen European countries.

Products, over four hundred thousand of them, were scored by the algorithm from their energy, saturated fat, sugar, salt, protein, fiber, and fruit-vegetable-legume content. The distributions of the twenty twenty-three and earlier classifications were compared across countries and food categories. Classification proved consistent across the fourteen national supplies and aligned with food-based dietary guidelines. Consistency across countries is the politically decisive property: a single label can only support a single market if the same product earns the same grade everywhere it is sold.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13583817