The French food company announced on Wednesday, September 4, the gradual withdrawal of labeling from some of its products aimed at directing consumers towards healthier products.
It had nevertheless been one of the first companies to adopt the Nutri-Score. The agri-food giant Danone announced this Wednesday, September 4, that it would no longer display it on its drinking yogurts, which are now unfavorably rated. Enough to provoke strong criticism from consumer protection associations.
With a simple colour code, from green to red, and letters from A to E, the Nutri-Score guides consumers towards products that are better for their health and encourages manufacturers to improve their recipes. While waiting for a harmonised and mandatory labelling at European level, companies display it on a voluntary basis in seven countries (Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland). Others, such as in Italy, are fiercely opposed to it.
Danone claims to have been “pioneer in France”, using the Nutri-Score since its launch in 2017. “It’s a tool that we really believed in”assures the group’s spokesperson. But the update of the calculation method, approved in 2023 by the Nutri-Score scientific committee, is contested by Danone and other manufacturers whose products are becoming less well rated.
“It is lamentable, extremely shocking, to see that Danone is abandoning the Nutri-Score when the rules of the game established by scientists no longer please it”reacted Serge Hercberg, professor of nutrition at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University and designer of the Nutri-Score. Not a member of the scientific committee, he defends the work of these experts who “do not work to please industrialists or to penalize them gratuitously, but only in the interest of public health”.
“Reverse”
Even if the quantity of sugars is equivalent, the distinction between solid and drinkable yogurt is “relevant” for Professor Hercberg: the second is mainly taken outside of meals, like «snack liquide»at the risk of bringing “to significant consumption among children and adolescents.” “This serves to alert the consumer to the fact that these products must be consumed in a reasonable manner,” estimates Serge Hercberg.
UFC-Que-Choisir denounces “Danone’s pseudo-nutritional argument” and believes that the episode brings “further proof that displaying the Nutri-Score on a voluntary basis does not ensure that consumers are properly informed” The consumer association Foodwatch described’«inadmissible» the “reverse” of the French multinational. “Danone should no longer make us believe that it is concerned about the health of consumers,” said Audrey Morice, the organization’s campaign manager.
Danone’s decision only concerns its drinkable yogurts, namely the liquid versions of the brands Actimel, Danonino, Hi-Pro, Danone or Activia, a spokesperson said. These are now considered drinks rather than foods and therefore notably compared to water, which alone can be classified as A. Next come skimmed and semi-skimmed milk (B), then whole milk (C). With the revision of the algorithm, Actimel, promoted by the group as a health product, goes from A or B to D. The drinkable yogurt for children Danonino also drops to D, “like a sugary soda drink”, deplores the spokesman, noting that Danonino yogurt is consumed with a spoon “stay in B” with “similar nutritional values”.
The company Ecotone, owner of the manufacturer of plant-based biscuits and drinks Bjorg, was criticized at the end of 2023 by the UFC-Que Choisir association for having removed the Nutri-Score from its packaging just before the deployment of the new algorithm. Ecotone has defended itself from displaying a “Planet-score” for it since April 2023 “to raise awareness” customers to the environmental impact of products. The Nutri-score remains a “compass to develop our new recipes” and remains available online, specifies the company, which affirms that the share of its products rated A, B or C remains “in the same orders of magnitude” with the new calculation method.
