NUTRISCORE - Evaluation of impact on reformulation and consumer purchases and diets

Last updated on 14-12-2022 by Pierre Daubresse
Project duration:
October 1, 2018
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Project with no end date

In short

The voluntary Nutri-Score front-of-pack nutrition labelling system is a new policy adopted by the Minister of Public Health, Food Safety and Environment in Belgium since April 2019. Most of the food retailers already committed to put the Nutri-Score on their own brand products. The Nutri-Score rates the nutrition content of packaged foods with five colours/letters from red (least healthy) to green (most healthy). The Nutri-Score displayed is calculated based on the energy, saturated fat, total sugar, sodium, and fruit, vegetable, nut and legume (FVNL) levels and, in some instances, the protein and fibre content. This project aims to assess impact of Nutriscore on food reformulation and consumer diets.

Project description

The voluntary Nutri-Score front-of-pack nutrition labelling system is a new policy introduced by the Minister of Public Health in Belgium in April 2019. The Nutri-Score rates the nutrition content of packaged foods with five colours/letters from red (least healthy) to green (most healthy). 

This project aims to contribute to the evaluation of early impacts of the Nutri-Score on consumers, as well as food product reformulation and the resulting population health impact and economic effects.  In addition, the potential of the Nutri-Score to improve population diets and population health will be explored using theoretical scenarios.

The project has the following research lines:

  • To assess the nutritional quality, labelling and promotion of food products on the Belgian market using the Nutri-Score algorithm. Next to this a Nutritrack food product monitoring database started in 2018
  • To assess the early impact of the Nutri-Score on product reformulation in Belgium using the ongoing Nutritrack food product monitoring database
  • To assess the potential of the Nutri-Score to improve population diets in Belgium by using data from the Belgian food consumption surveys and other relevant available consumer data
  • To assess the potential long term health impact and its economic effect of early Product Reformulation in Response to the Nutri-Score Front-of-Pack Labelling System in Belgium

This project contributes to providing key insights into the potential impact of an implemented voluntary front-of-pack labelling system on food reformulation and consumer diets. 

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