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ARCHIVED - Traffic light food product labelling causes controversy in Spain
The system of grading food products according to health benefits is still unregulated in Spain
Nutriscore labelling, which allows food manufacturers in Spain to use a ‘nutritional traffic light’ system, is becoming increasingly common in supermarkets, despite the fact that the Spanish government has yet to decide whether or not to formally regulate it. The current regime means that edible products can carry a green, orange or red sticker denoting how healthy it is and has led to much controversy due to the flexible use of the labels.
Nutriscore is a package labelling system that gives a letter and a colour after taking an average based different parameters (calories, fat, sugar, salt etc) to define if a food is more or less healthy; the highest grade is scored with the letter A and the colour green and the worst with the E and the colour red.
Food giants like Danone and Nestlé are already using the grading while many supermarkets in Spain, such as Alcampo, Aldi and Carrefour are also using the scale on some of their own-brand packaging. The Ministry of Consumption supports the move and hopes to approve a Royal Decree to regulate it, but the Ministry of Agriculture is taking a more cautious approach and wants to wait for Brussels to make a legislative proposal in 2022.
Among its critics are nutritionists and food manufacturing experts who have warned that currently, a huge amount of highly-processed food is being incorrectly labelled as ‘healthy’ due to the lack of regulations, given the fact that companies can freely choose the rating of each of their own products.
The Nutriscore system originated in France where it is now freely used, while Italy has flat-out refused to adopt it. Spain has already challenged some of the global decisions made about the health scores, such as when olive oil was given one of the lowest health levels. After an appeal on the decision, the product rating went from D to C, an improvement that has not stopped the olive oil sector from showing its opposition to the system.
Those in favour of the measure hope that Nutriscore will force the manufacturers of ‘unhealthy’ products to reformulate their processes to create better goods.
"We must be honest, a product that comes out with a red traffic light will not be wanted by the consumer and it will fall in sales. That is why many are already changing recipes to obtain at least yellow or orange", according to a manufacturer spokesperson.
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