Nutri-Score in the European Food Retail Supply: A Potential Incentive for Food Reformulation?

Background: To improve consumers' diet, policy measures such as food reformulation strategies and front-of-pack nutritional labels (FOPNLs) are implemented, aiming to guide consumers' food choice and to stimulate an improvement in food composition by manufacturers. The FOPNL Nutri-Score has been implemented in several European countries. Changes in food compositions in relation to the Nutri-Score over time have been limitedly studied. This study evaluates food compositions in Europe over time, and if changes in compositions of the food supply could have potentially resulted in changes in Nutri-Score classifications of foods.

Materials And Methods: Food composition data were available from EUREMO, from which bread products, breakfast cereals, hot sauces, and processed potato products from Austria, Belgium, Finland, Italy, and the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2021 were selected ( = 2260). Of these countries, only Belgium had implemented the Nutri-Score in 2019. Distributions of food compositions and Nutri-Score classifications were calculated and changes in median salt, sugar, and saturated fatty acids content were plotted by food group, country and year. Distribution of the final sum of Nutri-Score points was plotted by nutrient, food group, country and year.

Results: Overall, more favourable Nutri-Score classifications (i.e., towards Nutri-Score classification A) were observed in most of the selected food groups and countries over the years, due to the influence of specific nutrients such as salt in breakfast cereals (lower median of 0.1-0.4 g/100 g) and processed potato products (lower median of 0.1-1.2 g/100 g); and sugar in processed potato products (lower median of 0.1-1.9 g/100 g) and bread products (lower median of 0.7-2.2 g/100 g). For nutrient contents in other food groups, no consistent changes were observed.

Conclusions: Changes in the compositions of the food supply resulted in favourable changes in Nutri-Score classifications, suggesting a potential for food reformulation. Monitoring after the actual implementation of Nutri-Score is recommended.