Nutri-Score creator: Danone’s decision to drop labels from dairy and plant-based drinks “regrettable”

16 Sep 2024 --- Dairy giant Danone recently announced it would phase out the Nutri-Score label from its dairy and plant-based drinks packaging in Europe, following an amendment classifying such drinks under the “beverage category.” The company told us the updated rules give consumers an “erroneous view of the nutritional and functional quality of drinkable dairy and plant-based products.” 

Food Ingredients First catches up with Professor Serge Hercberg, from the University Sorbonne in Paris, France — on whose work the Nutri-Score is based — to examine the utility of the voluntary packaging logo for F&B companies and consumers, and his stance on Danone’s move to scrap it.

What was your main goal when developing the concept of Nutri-Score labels?
Hercberg: Based on a rigorous scientific background to be affixed to the front of food packaging, the Nutri-Score nutrition label was developed with the aims of informing consumers, in a simple and understandable way, of the overall nutritional value of foods, to help them make better informed and healthier choices at the point of purchase. The second objective of the Nutri-Score is to encourage manufacturers to improve the nutritional composition of their products through reformulations and/or innovations so that their products are better positioned on the Nutri-Score color scale and ultimately less harmful to consumers.

What impact has the label made on the F&B industry and consumer choices?
Hercberg: The Nutri-Score has had a real impact — on consumers and on nutritional composition of food products (reformulations, innovations). Three years after the adoption of Nutri-Score in France, a study showed that 93% of consumers considered Nutri-Score useful to know the nutritional quality of food products. For 70% of consumers, Nutri-Score gives a better image of the brands displaying the logo, while 57% declared that they have already changed at least one of their purchasing habits due to it.

Nutri-Score should be present on all packaging and made mandatory in Europe, says Professor Hercberg.Additionally, a study performed by American researchers showed that products introduced or altered after the introduction of the Nutri-Score in 2017 received better Nutri-Score ratings than those introduced before the adoption, indicating a shift to items that are healthier overall. Another study by the consumer association UFC Que Choisir in France also demonstrated that nutritional improvements in food composition were observed between 2022 and 2015 in food categories where Nutri-Score is frequently displayed. 

What do you make of Danone’s recent decision to remove the Nutri-Score from its dairy and plant-based drinkable products?
Hercberg: The attitude of Danone is regrettable and very disappointing on the part of a company that has for several years cultivated an image of a food group with a strong social commitment and that has until now claimed to place “health for all through food” at the heart of its image as a responsible company. In the interests of consumers, it would have been desirable for Danone to play the game of nutritional transparency to the end and instead work to improve the nutritional quality of its drinking yogurts and plant-based drinks by reducing their sugar content.

The sugar content of Danone’s yogurt drinks, sweetened milk drinks (flavored milks) and plant-based drinks varies considerably between sugar-free versions and very sweet versions. Some of these products may contain up to 10 to 13 g of sugar/100 ml (i.e., the same level as soft drinks), but they were abnormally classified as A or B with the calculation method for general foods that was initially used. 

What do you think about the amended algorithm that deems drinkable dairy and plant-based products as beverages?
Hercberg: This revision ensures better harmonization between the information provided by the Nutri-Score and current public health nutritional recommendations aimed at limiting the consumption of sugary drinks. In addition, it will improve the Nutri-Score’s ability to distinguish between the differences of nutritional qualities of different types of milk, yogurt drinks, flavored milk drinks and vegetable drinks, in particular making it easier for consumers to identify those with a high sugar content.

Why do drinkable and spoonable yogurts need different Nutri-Scores?
Hercberg: Drinkable yogurts are beverages and frequently consumed outside of mealtimes, unlike solid yogurts. Moreover, for some of these products, the promotion of nutritional arguments (allegations) reinforced by a good Nutri-Score classification gives the false impression that they have a health benefit, which is absolutely not true for the sweetest forms, whose consumption should be limited from a health point of view. On their packaging, some of these products suggest potential health benefits like “rich in vitamin D,” which may give consumers the feeling that they can be consumed in large quantities, despite the high levels of sugar they contain, which were not objectified by the initial version of the Nutri-Score.

Solid and liquid forms of yogurt do not have the same health benefits and have different consumption patterns.Danone’s fruit yogurts (which contain only 6% fruit) have the same sugar content for both the spoonable and drinkable versions, 10 to 13 g of sugar per 100 g or 100 ml, and the solid form has gone from a B to a C, while the liquid form has gone from a B to a D. These differences between solid and liquid forms are justified. 

How are solid and liquid yogurts different in terms of their health impact?
Hercberg: As the Scientific Committee pointed out in its report, solid and liquid forms of yogurt do not have the same benefits in terms of their potential effect on health. While some studies suggest that consumption of non-fat dairy products and fermented milks may favor reducing the risk of cardio-metabolic diseases (with heterogeneous results), this effect has not been found for sweetened dairy products, particularly liquid fermented milk-based products. Some studies also suggest that free sugars added to drinkable yogurts may be significantly more favorable than those added to the solid version.

What do you think of the downgraded scores on Danone’s drinking yogurts after the updated rules?
Hercberg: Contrary to what Danone says, it’s not drinking yogurts or plant-based drinks that are being penalized by the update of Nutri-Score, but the sweetened forms of these products that have had their Nutri-Score downgraded. With the updated Nutri-Score, versions of these products with little or no added sugar (less than 4%) are still well classified as green or B. Only the sweetened forms of drinking yogurts and vegetable drinks are classified as C, D or E, depending on their sugar content.

Should the Nutri-Score label be made mandatory?
Hercberg: To force the hand to large companies that refuse Nutri-Score such as Coca-Cola, Mars, Mondelez, Unilever, Ferrero, Lactalis and Kraft, and powerful agricultural sectors such as those of the processed meats and cheeses industries, it is important to make Nutri-Score mandatory. 

This change is important in public health as several studies performed in different populations have demonstrated that consuming foods with less favorable ratings on the Nutri-Score scale was associated with an augmentation of the risk for various health outcomes in cohort studies (cancers, obesity, mortality). A new study published in the Lancet Regional Health confirms that eating foods with less favorable ratings in the updated version of Nutri-Score is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Moreover, an OECD study showed that the voluntary adoption of the Nutri-Score in all EU countries would prevent nearly 2 million cases of chronic diseases between 2023 and 2050.

By Insha Naureen