Albert Heijn details nutritional value of products through Nutri-Score labeling

03 Jan 2022 --- The Nutri-Score of 6,000 of Albert Heijn’s (AH) own brand products are now visible on electronic price tags and their food choice logo is displayed on products in an app and online, in efforts to help customers make healthier food choices.

Each product is assigned a score based on a special algorithm. There are pluses for protein, fiber, fruit, vegetables, legumes and nuts. Energy content (kcal), sugars, saturated fat and salt push the score down.

“We want to make better food accessible to everyone. And, a healthy lifestyle is more important than ever,” says Marit van Egmond, general manager of Albert Heijn. 

“We are convinced that this food choice logo will help our customers make healthier choices,” explains van Egmond.

Nutri-score food logoThe logo compares the products in a certain product group with each other. 
The move to make the nutritional composition of food products visible, which comes into effect today, forms part of the supermarket’s next step in its gradual introduction of the independent food choice logo Nutri-Score. 

In the coming months, more AH own-brand products will display Nutri-Score labeling on the packaging, and the Dutch retailer will monitor shoppers’ experience of the new labeling. 

The independent food choice logo Nutri-Score was developed by French scientists and has now also been introduced in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium. The Dutch government opted for Nutri-Score in 2019. 

The food choice logo will come into effect across the Netherlands after final approval from the government’s Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.

 In other industry news, food industry giants Nestlé and Danone joined a coalition calling for Nutri-Score to become the mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labeling (FoPL) system across the EU.

Coded nutritional value
Consumers can glimpse the nutritional composition of a product with Nutri-Score. The nutritional value of products are coded, by letter and color, on the food choice logo.

‘A’ is dark green and stands for products that have the healthiest composition within a product group. Score ‘E’ is red and is shown on products from the same product group with the least healthiest composition.

The logo compares the products in a certain product group with each other and when a fruit juice scores a ‘C’, that drink is a healthier choice than a juice with ‘E’ in the same product group.

“Albert Heijn offers the widest choice of products with an A or B score. This is because we have been structurally improving our own-brand products for years. We add extra fiber and use less sugar, salt and saturated fats,” explains van Egmond.

Edited by Inga de Jong