While the Nutri-Score calculation method will evolve from the end of 2023, some European Union countries remain reluctant to implement it. This is particularly the case of Italy, which denounces the endangerment of its local gastronomy.
Wind up against Nutri-Score, the Italian government and producers categorically refuse to apply the logo ranging from green to red with the letters from A to E to its gourmet products.
Indeed, according to Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, the French system would be “discriminatory and penalizing” for the Italian agri-food system. According to her, the giant Ferrero would be hit hard by the consequences of the Nutri-Score.
In the broad sense, for the government and the producers, it would even be the whole of Italian gastronomy – olive oil, cheeses, pasta, mozzarella, ham, wine – which would be impacted.
EU concerns
But while the European Union hopes to be able to find a single method common to all member countries, Italy has made another proposal: the Nutrinform Battery, which would assess the impact of the portions potentially consumed and not the composition of the product as which as the Nutri-Score does.
The adoption of harmonized labeling has finally been postponed indefinitely in 2023, which the European public health association considers worrying because the implementation of a labeling scheme is “urgent” because ” more than half of adults in the EU are overweight or obese, leading to an increase in chronic diseases such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease. ‘association.
For the moment, only Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland will therefore align themselves with the new Nutri-Score calculation method.