Food group denounces classification of drinking yogurts as “beverages”. Other brands already contest the Nutri-Score
Do you want to know if a Danone drinking yogurt or an Actimel is good for your health? This will no longer be possible. The Danone group will remove all mention of the nutriscore on these products from this September.
The food giant is annoyed by the tougher rules regarding the index launched by the authorities. The cause is a measure that shifts drinking yogurts into the “beverages” category. The sugar content of an Actimel or a Danonino yogurt – identical for the latter to that of yogurt in a pot – automatically pushes them down to the bottom of the Nutri-Score, to letter D or E.
Plant-based drinks are also downgraded due to their calorie count and low protein and fiber content.
“At Danone, we have always supported the implementation of nutritional, interpretative, transparent and coherent labeling and have been pioneers in France by affixing the Nutri-Score on our packaging since 2017,” Danone defends itself.
“However, the revision of the algorithm […] seems to us to be questionable from a methodological point of view: this development provides an erroneous vision of the nutritional quality of drinkable dairy products […] and therefore causes confusion among consumers,” the group added.
Other brands have turned away from it
Danone assures that it continues to support the implementation of a “scientifically supported” European labeling and that it continues to work to “offer consumers products that best meet their needs and allow them to eat in the most balanced way.”
But the tightening of the rules poses a problem for a number of brands: the organic manufacturer Bjorg, for example, had already withdrawn everything in 2023, before the entry into force of new criteria that would have downgraded the scores of its biscuits. The group says it prefers to highlight the social and environmental aspect of its approach.
Many other opponents of the Nutri-Score point out that it does not take ultra-processed products into account enough. The NGO Foodwatch, the UFC-Que-Choisir association and groups of scientists have successively called for the implementation of a mandatory indicator – at present, only 26% of products on shelves display the criterion.
According to IRI, the commercial stakes are high: E-rated products were 3.6% less well referenced on shelves at the end of 2022 than a year earlier.
Valentin Grille with Pauline Tattevin and Gaëtane Meslin
