(ANSA) - BRUSSELS - The Nutriscore label remains a misleading nutritional information system, even with the changes that improve the classification of foods such as olive oil.
These are the conclusions of the consumer protection NGO Safe Food Advocacy Europe (Safe), after an analysis of the new scores proposed by the scientific committee of Nutriscore.
A classification that "produces new distortions", according to Safe.
On Monday, the agriculture ministers will return to discuss the nutrition label in Brussels, informally, during the lunch break of the EU Council.
After examining the new food classification formula proposed by the scientific committee of Nutriscore to bring out, under strong pressure from Spain, the qualities of olive oil, Safe denounces how "extra virgin olive oil and pomace obtain both an A "score even though the former has a much higher content of monounsaturated fats and vitamins A and E.
Furthermore, Safe has conducted a comparative analysis with other labeling systems of the same type (Brazilian Nova, French Siga, and Mexican label on excess sugar) concluding that "Nutriscore's results have often appeared much more favorable to ultra-processed or high-sugar products."
Another flaw of Nutriscore, the Safe study continues, is the classification of foods according to a standard portion of 100g, a system that "seems to work well in the evaluation of the nutritional score for multi-ingredient products", but "inadequate for products. mono-ingredient, as it refers to a quantity that does not correspond to the consumer's potential intake ".
For these reasons, the NGO recommends the European Commission, which in the coming months will propose a mandatory nutrition label at EU level, to take into account the negative aspects of Nutriscore, to use a criterion per portion and not per 100 grams and to test the system for three years before its adoption.
(HANDLE).