Consumers and Health

Nutri-Score’s decade: evidence, blockades, and policy failure

June 5, 2025

The implementation of front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FOPNL) has become a critical public health intervention across Europe, with Nutri-Score emerging as the most widely adopted system since its creation in 2014. A new analysis by Julia et al., published in Nutrients (2025), examines a decade of Nutri-Score’s journey to reveal the often-turbulent interplay between robust scientific evidence, pervasive influence of crony industries and stalled European nutrition policy.

The rising burden of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) underscores the urgent need for effective, consumer-focused interventions such as front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FOPNL) systems (Kelly, 2024). Recent evidence from a large prospective study across seven European countries confirms the effectiveness of the Nutri-Score in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease — the leading cause of premature mortality in Europe (Deschasaux-Tanguy et al., 2024).

While Nutri-Score demonstrably helps consumers make healthier food choices (Andreani et al., 2025) and incentivizes product reformulation (Bauner et al., 2024), this article exposes the specific lobbying tactics, conflicts of interest and political failures that have systematically undermined its harmonized adoption across Europe. It calls on responsible stakeholders – agri-food production, large-scale retail, and civil society organisations – to take urgent, coordinated action to break the deadlock and advance public health nutrition.

Table of Contents

Background and context

The evolution of FOPNL systems in Europe reflects diverse approaches to nutrition communication. Since Sweden’s pioneering green keyhole system in 1989, multiple schemes have emerged, including endorsement logos, nutrient-specific graded schemes, warning labels, and summary graded systems. Nutri-Score, developed in 2014 by French academic researchers, represents a summary-graded, colour-coded indicator designed to communicate the overall nutritional value of foods and beverages effectively.

The European Union regulatory framework, established through the 2011 food information to consumers regulation, permits voluntary FOPNL schemes whilst mandating back-of-pack nutrition declarations. Member States have thus maintained or introduced various systems at national level, resulting in a fragmentation that the European Commission had committed to addressing by 2022, in line with the Food Information to Consumers Regulation (FIR) and its own Farm to Fork Strategy (2020).

Methodological approach

Julia et al. (2025) employed a comprehensive policy analysis approach, examining multiple evidence streams to evaluate Nutri-Score’s trajectory. Their methodology encompassed:

Systematic review of scientific literature on FOPNL effectiveness, with particular attention to studies examining consumer behaviour, understanding, and purchasing patterns;
Analysis of policy documents from the European Commission, including the Joint Research Centre (JRC) reports and official communications;
Critical examination of stakeholder positions and lobbying activities, including industry-funded research and advocacy efforts;
Assessment of conflict of interest patterns in published research on Nutri-Score.

The authors employed established theoretical frameworks — most notably Grunert and Wills’ (2007) model of consumer response to nutrition information — to evaluate the existing evidence base. This model distinguishes between preference variables (such as consumer perceptions and attitudes) and performance variables (objective improvements in task performance), offering a robust analytical structure for assessing the effectiveness of front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FOPNL).

Recent studies by Khoury et al. (2024) in France and Samper Márq (2024) in Spain further support this framework, highlighting its relevance in evaluating consumer responses to the Nutri-Score system.

Major findings and discussion

Scientific evidence supporting Nutri-Score

The accumulated evidence demonstrates Nutri-Score’s effectiveness across multiple dimensions. Performance studies consistently show that nutri-score outperforms alternative formats in helping consumers identify nutritional value. Randomised controlled trials, including choice experiments, online supermarket simulations, and real-world store implementations, demonstrate improvements in the nutritional quality of purchases and reductions in calories, saturated fats, and sugars purchased.

Modelling studies by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) project substantial public health benefits. Mandatory Nutri-Score implementation across the EU could prevent nearly two million cases of NCDs between 2023 and 2050, whilst enhancing workforce productivity with an estimated annual gain of 10.6 full-time equivalent workers per 100,000 working-age individuals.

Industry influence and evidence manipulation

A critical finding reveals systematic bias in industry-funded research. Studies conducted by authors with conflicts of interest were 21 times more likely to yield unfavourable results for Nutri-Score. Industry-sponsored research employed alternative theoretical frameworks – such as the Nutri(dis)inform – that prioritised consumer attitudes over objective performance measures, diverging from established scientific approaches.

The analysis identifies specific lobbying tactics employed by food industry stakeholders, including:

production of studies emphasising subjective preferences for alternative systems (Garde et al., 2024);
attempts to discredit academic research teams;
shifting discourse from health empowerment to economic protectionism and ‘food patriotism’;
disproportionate engagement with European Commission directorates.

Policy process failures

The European Commission’s failure to deliver promised legislation by 2022 reflects significant policy process deficiencies. Analysis of meeting records reveals that directorates-general for health and food safety (DG SANTE) and agriculture and rural development (DG AGRI) held predominantly industry-focused consultations, with limited civil society engagement.

The European Ombudsman’s investigations exposed serious transparency failures, including poor documentation of lobbying and denial of public access to legislative records. While these findings confirm systemic issues in how stakeholder influence is managed, they have not led to any meaningful corrective measures. The failure to act on the Ombudsman’s recommendations allows existing imbalances to persist, overriding public health priorities.

Policy implications and outcomes

The stalled legislative process carries serious consequences for the effectiveness of public health policy in Europe. Despite strong scientific consensus and broad support from international bodies — including the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), professional associations (i.e. EUPHA), and civil society organisations — the proposal for a harmonised front-of-pack nutrition label (FOPNL) remains unpublished to date.

A harmonised European legislation on front-of-pack summary nutrition labelling (FOPNL) would therefore position Nutri-Score as the only system eligible for implementation, owing to its strong scientific backing and widespread application in major countries such as Germany, France, and Spain (as well as several others). This would bring considerable benefits for all stakeholders involved:

enhanced consumer empowerment through consistent, evidence-based nutrition information;
reduced regulatory fragmentation and trade barriers for food businesses;
support for member States’ diet-related disease prevention strategies;
alignment with international commitments to promote healthier food environments.

The analysis, however, highlights how power imbalances between public health advocates and regressive industry lobbyists are obstructing the development of evidence-based policies. It also exposes the vulnerability of the decision-making process to manipulation, particularly when proposed measures threaten the profitability of major financial–industrial players (see also Garde et al., 2025).

Conclusions

This comprehensive analysis of Nutri-Score’s decade-long journey lays bare — with crystal clarity — the Herculean, or rather Hercbergian, challenge of addressing a public health emergency with a simple and effective tool rooted in scientific evidence. A challenge made all the more daunting by the pervasive lobbying of industries generating billions in profit from the production and sale of ultra-processed foods with poor nutritional profiles, as well as by institutional opacity and political weakness.

The findings underscore the imperative for transparent, evidence-based policy processes that address power imbalances and resist the instrumentalisation of science. The European Commission’s failure to deliver on its FOPNL harmonisation commitment represents a missed opportunity for advancing public health across the union.

Moving forward, successful implementation of effective nutrition labelling policy requires:

alignment of policy processes with public health objectives rather than economic protectionism;
prioritisation of high-quality, independent scientific evidence;
commitment to transparency in all stakeholder engagements;
recognition and mitigation of conflicts of interest.

The Nutri-Score case study provides valuable lessons for evidence-based policymaking in contested domains, demonstrating both the potential of scientific research to inform effective interventions and the vulnerabilities of policy processes to strategic manipulation by vested interests.

Call to action

In light of the Commission’s continued inaction, stakeholders must pursue alternative pathways to advance public health nutrition policy. On the juridical front, the European Court of Auditors’ Special Report 23/2024 on food labelling confirms the Commission’s failure to fulfil its obligations under Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, having addressed only 4 of 11 delegated topics requiring action.

This clear failure paves the way for decisive legal action before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) under Article 265 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), on the grounds of failure to act. Citizens, consumer organisations, and Member States supporting Nutri-Score should consider bringing cases demanding the Commission implement the mandatory harmonised front-of-pack nutrition labelling provisions as required by the Food Information to Consumers Regulation.

Simultaneously, the private sector can demonstrate leadership where policymakers have faltered. Responsible retailers are already taking action:

Carrefour France has mandated Nutri-Score display for all suppliers of its ecommerce platforms;
Albert Heijn in the Netherlands announced comprehensive Nutri-Score implementation across stores and online platforms;
major chains including Lidl, Aldi, Delhaize, and Eroski have expanded adoption, recognising Nutri-Score as integral to their ESG commitments, particularly the Social pillar focusing on consumer health and wellbeing.

The tremendous consumer demand for nutritional transparency is evidenced by the success of digital platforms:

Yuka has reached 71 million users globally, while
Open Food Facts maintains a collaborative database of over 3.7 million products as a United Nations-recognised Digital Public Good.

These figures reflect citizens’ growing demand for accessible nutritional information, creating market pressure that forward-thinking companies cannot afford to ignore. Retailers, food manufacturers — including SMEs — and restaurant chains can seize this opportunity by voluntarily adopting Nutri-Score, making a concrete statement of their corporate social responsibility while contributing to the most significant public health initiative currently underway in the food sector.

#Égalité

Dario Dongo

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Yuka – The mobile app that scans your products.