Nutri-Score: Evidence of the effectiveness of the French front-of-pack nutrition label

France recently decided to implement a newly developed 5 colour Front-of-Pack (FOP) nutrition labelling, “Nutri-Score” to orient consumers towards healthier food choices at the point of purchase and as an incentive for manufacturers to reformulate their products towards healthier compositions. Results of validation studies suggest that the Food Standards Agency nutrient profiling system (FSA-NPS) underlying the Nutri-Score can adequately characterize the nutritional quality of foods, and that an individual score (FSA-NPS dietary index, FSA-NPS DI) based on the FSA score of the foods consumed can adequately summarize the nutritional quality of the diet. Moreover, the FSA-NPS DI is associated with chronic diseases onset. The format of the Nutri-Score appears well-perceived and understood. Finally, the Nutri-Score was associated with a higher nutritional quality of purchases in experimental and large scale trials. Altogether, these elements tend to corroborate the Nutri-Score as an efficient tool in public health nutrition.

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