Danone products display Nutri-Score

DANONE’s fresh dairy products in Belgium will come with a Nutri-Score label by the end of October 2018. The company is the first to roll out the scheme as endorsement of the Federal Minister for Public Health’s appeal to give consumers more easy-to-read nutritional facts to guide them in their food choices.

Developed by international researchers in nutrition, Nutri-Score labelling scheme contains legible information about the overall nutritional quality of products displayed on the front of pack. Food products are classified in five categories, with a colour scale indicating the nutritional quality ranging from A (a better nutritional quality in green) to E (less good nutritional quality in red). Studies have shown that this system is easily understood by consumers and that it has a greater impact on shifting consumer-buying behaviour towards healthy choices than other systems.

According to the WHO Europe, the introduction of this scheme, which has already been tried and tested by French consumers and performed better than other systems, marks an important achievement for nutrition in Europe.

“This intuitive and scientific labelling scheme, based on a code with five colours and letters, will allow consumers to make a better and above all faster nutritional assessment of the products that correspond to their healthy lifestyle,” said Wim Bauwens, Country Manager for Danone Belux. “The system is already in use in France, and the Belgian government has indicated that it will be introduced on a voluntary basis in our country. Danone now chooses to fully endorse the Nutri-Score labelling scheme. I strongly believe that the Nutri-Score scheme best meets the expectations of Belgian consumers, who are paying even more attention to what they eat and to their health.”

Products on the Belgian market are scoring for 70% A and B in the Nutri-score scheme. As from January 2019, the Nutri-Score will gradually be added to all of its fresh dairy products sold in Belgian shops, the objective being to cover all packaging no later than end of 2020.

The Nutri-Score label will be displayed on all the products on the company’s website, www.danone.be starting end-October.