France updates Nutri-Score food label - but EU stalls on adopting it

France has formally updated its Nutri-Score food labelling system, reinforcing national support for the colour-coded nutrition guide despite plans for its EU-wide  implementation stalling in Brussels.

Five French ministers, including health minister Catherine Vautrin and agriculture  minister Marc Fesneau, have signed a decree approving an updated version of the algorithm behind Nutri-Score.

The changes aim to offer shoppers clearer, more accurate nutritional data while  encouraging manufacturers to improve the quality of their products. 

The new version of Nutri-Score better accounts for sugar and salt levels, distinguishes between wholegrain and refined cereals, and adjusts scores for certain fats and oils.

The European Commission appears to have shelved plans to make the Nutri-Score food packaging label compulsory across the EU.

The French system was widely thought to be the frontrunner to be adopted on food packaging across the bloc, but the commission has failed to propose legislation on the issue, in part due to intense opposition by some member states. 

"I do not see the commission putting a legislative text on the table in the years to come," a European diplomatic source told Radio France, which in March published an investigation into the issue. 

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It included a document from a March 2023 meeting between the Director-General for Agriculture at the European Commission and the Schwarz group, owner of Lidl, in which the commission said the EU proposal “will not copy/paste any existing system”. The commission said it did not want to comment on leaked documents. 

Nutri-Score is placed on the front of food packaging, with the aim of helping consumers make healthier food choices. It uses the letters A to E and five colours to categorise products based on key ingredients including sugar, fat, salt and protein. 

The most nutritional product would be classed A - green and the least E - red. 

It was created in 2017 by a team of researchers at Sorbonne-Paris Nord University and has been adopted on a voluntary basis by Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland. 

Only legislation by the European Commission would make the system compulsory in member states. 

In 2020, the commission unveiled its ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy as part of its Green Deal. The idea was to create a harmonised and mandatory front-of-packaging nutrition-labelling system by the end of 2022. 

Food labelling system deemed 'hostile'

Yet, despite MEPs approving in principle the idea of mandatory nutritional logos in 2021, and the European Court of Auditors recommending a Europe-wide labelling system in a report, no legislation has been proposed. 

The plans faced strong opposition from some member states, notably Italy, which has criticised the food label as anti-Italian and particularly hostile to its meats, cheeses and olive oils. 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has expressed her opposition to Nutri-Score, saying “food sovereignty is a priority” for her government. 

There have been 17 meetings between European Commission officials and lobbies opposed to the Nutri-Score, compared to two meetings with civil society groups, the Radio France investigation found. 

Nutri-Score creator Serge Hercberg warned in December 2024 that agri-food lobbies who opposed the measures were putting Europeans’ health at risk. 

Even in France, the system has not enjoyed complete support. Plans to alter its calculation method in 2023 resulted in French food giant Danone removing the labels from its drinkable yoghurts in late 2024. 

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Nutri-Score is not mentioned in the French government’s ‘Vision for Agriculture and Food’ published in February 2025.

In a press briefing on March 4, a European Commission spokesperson avoided the issue of whether the Nutri-Score idea had been dropped, saying the Commission was “working extensively” on food labelling and noted the “challenges” of reaching “common solutions”.