NUTRISCORE HITS HURDLE IN GERMAN COURT

The health logo, more commonly known as Nutriscore, developped by the French authorities to provide a ranking to foods in terms of their relative nutritional quality has been restricted by the  district court of Hamburg in Germany. Food manufacturer Iglo, who included the logo on its packaging, had been challenged by a consumer protection association. It has received an injunction to remove the logo from its labelling.

The use of the Nutriscore scheme is voluntary but is increasingly supported by both industry and member state authorities. Originating in France, the scheme is being considered for implementation in Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Luxemburg and Netherlands. There were hopes to have the Nutriscore as a unified health logo around Europe, but this idea now receives its first backlash. Iglo indicated it would appeal the Court ruling as soon as possible.

The use of the Nutriscore scheme is voluntary but is increasingly supported by both industry and member state authorities. Originating in France, the scheme is being considered for implementation in Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Luxemburg and Netherlands. There were hopes to have the Nutriscore as a unified health logo around Europe, but this idea now receives its first backlash. Iglo indicated it would appeal the Court ruling as soon as possible.

Note: Court ruling currently not available.

See: IGLO – Press Release (16 April 2019) - link

Simultaneously, the German Federation for Food Law and Food Science (Bund für Lebensmittelrecht und Lebensmittelkunde or BLL) has proposed a different voluntary Nutritional Labelling Model. The front of pack indication depicts the energy value together with the amounts of fat, saturates, sugar and salt. An additional visualisation shows how much the food’s energy value and each nutrient contributes to their respective reference intakes. Different from the French Nutriscore model, it does not provide for a ranking of the food as a whole. It neither indicates whether the values are high, average or low as is the case with the UK traffic light labelling scheme. The reason provided is that foods neither nutrients should be ranked as all foods may fit in a balanced diet. People should not remove foods from their diets but rather eat a balanced and varied diet.

BLL -  Nährwerte auf der Schauseite: Spitzenverband der Lebensmittelwirtschaft entwickelt neues Kennzeichnungsmodell - link