How Italian 'food nationalism' has blocked Nutri-Score nutrition labelling system in Europe
The food nutrition labelling system known as Nutri-Score was first introduced in France in 2017 and later adopted by Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Holland and Luxembourg. The aim of the five-coloured label scheme is to help guide consumers towards eating healthier produce. But on the pretext of defending Italian food, Giorgia Meloni's government and the Italian far right have so far prevented this system from being rolled out across the rest of the European Union. Karl Laske reports.
“Nutri“Nutri-Score is madness and Fratelli d'Italia will work to block this discriminatory labelling system.” Giorgia Meloni promised it during a visit to the European Parliament in 2021. And one year after arriving as head of the Italian government the prime minister seems to have kept her word. For the five-coloured nutritional labelling system, which was first used by France in 2017 on a voluntary basis, and which has been adopted since by six other European countries, was not presented by the European Commission for approval by the European Parliament in 2023 as had been planned.
