The controversy launched by the Italian government on nutrition labeling

May 21, 2019
Sébastien Bouley

In early May 2019, the Italian government criticized the future report of the WHO aimed at providing guidelines for framing nutritional labeling of foods in order to “promote a healthy diet”. The report provides guidance to countries developing nutrition labeling policies to promote healthy eating. They are part of the series of measures recommended by WHO to prevent the growth of noncommunicable diseases. These include France, with its Nutri-Score and the Australian Health Star Rating, as well as mandatory “high-in” warning labels that are now adopted in Chile, Peru and Israel. .

On the face of it, the objections of the Ambassador of Italy related to the use of nutrient profiling to assess the nutritional quality of foods, rejecting the concept as motivated by political considerations rather than science. Its motives were, however, evoked in the conclusions that it used in support: a British study revealing that one year after the traffic lights had been intentionally introduced, there had been “a dramatic decline in the sale of all the most typical quality Italian foods: a clear demonstration that nutritional profile-based systems do not lead to healthier choices and penalize traditional Italian foods “.

The public health nutrition researchers in the research team that developed the Nutri-Score decipher the reasons for this challenge. This, on the other hand, makes it possible to warn about the need to moderate their quantities and their frequencies of consumption.

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