Aldi is expanding Nutri-Score labeling - by 2024 for almost all own brands
Created: 09/21/2022, 13:19
By: Stella Henrich
Labeling with the food traffic light Nutri-Score has so far been voluntary.
The discounter Aldi is now expanding it for its own brands.
Munich – Aldi Nord and Süd want to provide almost all their own brands with the Nutri-Score by August 2024.
This is now reported by the
Lebensmittel-Zeitung
.
In a letter, the retailer instructed the manufacturers to revise the recipes in order to get a better Nutri-Score.
The discounter states that it has set itself the goal of making conscious nutrition affordable for as many people as possible.
This means that you continuously reduce the amount of sugar and salt.
Retailers are increasingly providing their own brands with the food traffic light Nutri-Score
Similar to Aldi, Lidl has already started using the food traffic light for its products.
Kaufland wants to mark all its own brand products with the Nutri-Score by 2023.
And the Rewe Group with its subsidiary Penny is already supporting customers with the colorful nutritional value traffic light on the topic of "healthy eating".
Hans-Jürgen Moog, Head of Purchasing at REWE Group, said at the beginning of 2021, shortly after the regulation for the introduction of the Nutri-Score came into force: "With our own brands, you can now see the nutritional quality at a glance capture and compare.
For our customers, however, this extended nutritional value labeling can only offer real added value if all products in the range are labeled with the Nutri-Score.”
Food traffic light: Demand from retailers to food manufacturers
The requirement is therefore clear.
The entire branch – dealers as well as the food industry – should be equally committed to the food traffic light.
"In the interests of transparency and comprehensive information for our customers, we expect food manufacturers to label their products with the Nutri-Score," Moog demanded in a Rewe statement at the time.
A demand that the discounter Aldi is now repeating.
So far, manufacturers have been able to use the label voluntarily.
On November 6, 2020, the ordinance for the introduction of the Nutri-Score came into force.
This created the legal basis for using the Nutri-Score as a nutritional labeling model in Germany
to use voluntarily.
The Federal Association of Consumer Advice Centers supports this traffic light.
Consumers could thus clearly assess a food product at a glance on the store shelf.
However, since the labeling has only been introduced by a few manufacturers so far, it is not possible to compare products from different manufacturers.
If you want to pay attention to individual nutrients such as energy or sugar content, “you have to continue to look closely at the list of ingredients and the nutritional information”.
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Nutri-Score: What is behind the food traffic light?
The Nutri-Score is printed on the front.
If you want to find out more about the contents, you must also look at the more detailed nutritional value table or the list of ingredients on the packaging.
Both details are mandatory.
They are usually found on the back of a product.
Shop healthier and eat better with the Nutri-Score and is intended to provide better orientation on the shopping shelf.
(Iconic image) © Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture by Nutri-Score.
What does the Nutri-Score say?
With the Nutri-Score, a
five-level colored scale from A to E
shows the overall nutritional value of a product.
This means: Within a product group, for example, a food with a green A is the nutritionally more favorable choice compared to a food with a yellow C. Comparing a ready-made pizza with a chocolate bar therefore makes no sense, since they are not alternatives.
With the Nutri-Score, however, products in the same category can be easily compared, for example chocolate bar A with chocolate bar B, the same products from different manufacturers, or similar products in the same product category, for example chocolate muesli with fruit muesli.
Consumers do not have to do without certain foods, but can consciously choose an alternative in a product group.
In principle, the Nutri-Score does not provide any orientation about the balance of the entire diet and does not make
any statements about the health value of an individual food
.
Eating only Category A foods is far from eating a balanced diet.
Because a balanced diet includes many different foods in the right proportions - preferably also unprocessed ones such as fresh vegetables, fruit or legumes.
Dietary recommendations help with this choice.
Source: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
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A current Nutri-Score conclusion for consumers: It is worth looking at the Nutri-Score to compare foods in a product category.
The general rule here is: the more calories, sugar, saturated fat and salt a food contains, the worse the rating.
To compare different food groups, it makes more sense to look at the nutritional table.
Here the manufacturers have to indicate how many grams of fat, sugar or salt a product contains per 100 grams.
And if you want to do something for your own well-being at the end of the day - with a healthy diet - experts recommend more exercise.
