Assoc. Consumers wants to introduce color coded partitions to show how healthy products are

The consumer badociation Consumentenbond asks the Dutch government to introduce the Nutriscore label on Dutch products. Nutriscore is a color-coded label that shows at a glance how healthy or unhealthy a product is, with notes ranging from A (healthy) to E (unhealthy).

At the end of last year, the Dutch government and some 70 social organizations signed the National Preventive Agreement, which aims to improve the health of the Dutch population. Part of the agreement states that a new logo of food choice must be introduced by the end of 2020. The new logo must allow consumers to choose more healthily. Consumentenbond thinks that Nutriscore is the best option for this.

The Nutriscore system was designed in France and is already working well there, "said Babs van der Staak of Consumentenbond at NOS. The government hired a team of independent researchers to examine the nutritional value of a product and badign it a good health score between A and E. This score is accompanied by a color code, A healthy being green and unhealthy E red.

To show how the system works, the consumer badociation applied the method to 50 different snacks, such as cereal bars, rice cakes and chocolate bars. Only one in five achieved the A or B score in good health. "People know that a Mars, a Snickers or a Kitkat are not healthy.However, many products that look healthy because of the packaging, do not turn out to be," Van der Staak said. . She cited as an example rice cakes with a layer of yoghurt. "That says yogurt, but it's actually a kind of white chocolate." The product therefore obtained an unhealthy score of E.

The Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sport is currently studying the different labels to determine what will work best in the Netherlands. "We are looking at different existing systems and we are going to test what the Dutch understand best," said state secretary Paul Blokhuis, according to NOS. "To succeed, the new logo must also benefit from broad support." He hopes to have a decision by the end of the year.

Marian Geluk, director of the food sector interest group, FNLI, says it's too early to support the Nutriscore label, as the ministry has not yet decided to choose one. According to her, the manufacturers want especially fast clarity not to have to change system later.