Posted on by Thomas Bäumer

Nutri-Score – Do consumers understand what it means?

The prevalence of adult obesity has more than doubled worldwide since 1990 (World Health Organization [WHO] 2024). Obesity-related diseases caused about 11% of deaths in 2019 (WIOD, 2022). A healthy diet is recommended to prevent obesity; however, only few consumers are interested in learning about this topic (IfD Allensbach, 2023, as cited in Statista, 2023).

Front-of-pack (FOP) labels, particularly the Nutri-Score, can be used to address this problem. Nutritional values, which are otherwise only shown in a nutritional value table, usually on the back of a package, are summarized using the Nutri-Score. This allows consumers to quickly judge how nutritious selected products are in comparison.

The EU plans to introduce a binding FOP label (European Parliament, 2022, 2023). Studies have shown that the conceptual understanding of the Nutri-Score must be improved to ensure its’ effective use (Liu et al., 2014). However, it remains unclear whether consumers know how to use the Nutri-Score accurately. This post summarizes research examining consumers’ conceptual understanding of the Nutri-Score.

Research aim:

In the present study conducted by Nicole Del, the conceptual understanding of the Nutri-Score was examined and compared with other forms of understanding, namely subjective and objective understanding. It was further investigated whether gender and the involvement in healthy nutrition have an influence on conceptual understanding.

Method:

This study examined the extent to which consumers correctly understand the Nutri-Score. In the survey, different aspects of understanding were assessed using a sample of 170 consumers (aged 18-78 years).

  • Objective understanding was assessed by letting participants choose the healthiest and unhealthiest options from three products within a product category. Each product had a different Nutri-Score. They had to make a choice for five different product categories. The number of correct choices was translated into an objective score.
  • Subjective understanding was measured through self-assessment using a rating scale from 1 (I do not understand at all) to 10 (I understand very well).
  • Conceptual understanding was measured using ten true-false statements. The score was based on correctly categorizing the statements as true or false.

Key results:

  • Consumers’ conceptual understanding of the Nutri-Score was lower than that of the other forms (conceptual 63%, objective 85%, subjective 70%).
  • Thus, consumers do not have a sufficient conceptual understanding of the Nutri-Score for the correct application. Over half of the participants mistakenly thought that foods with a Nutri-Score of D or E should not be consumed, and over 40% believed that a Nutri-Score of A or B indicates that the food is healthy (both are not correct).
  • Interestingly, subjective, objective, and conceptual understanding did not correlate, implying that they constitute different dimensions of understanding.
  • Neither gender nor involvement in healthy eating had a significant influence on conceptual understanding.

Summary:

The EU’s Farm-to-Fork Strategy plans to introduce a binding FOP label. Currently, the Nutri-Score is one of the most widely used FOP labels in the EU. If properly applied, the label can reduce the number of consumers with diet-related diseases by guiding healthy food choices (Egnell et al., 2019). However, our study shows that many consumers do not understand the label sufficiently. They have knowledge gaps in their conceptual understanding of the label, implying that they may not always correctly apply the Nutri-Score. Thus, there is a need for informational campaigns to explain the meaning of the Nutri-Score.

References

Egnell, M., Crosetto, P., d’Almeida, T., Kesse-Guyot, E., Touvier, M., Ruffieux B et al. (2019). Modelling the impact of different front-of-package nutrition labels on mortality from non-communicable chronic disease. The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 16(1), 56. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-019-0817-2

European Parliament (2022) Taking the EU’s ‘farm to fork’ strategy forward. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2021/690622/EPRS_ATA(2021)690622_EN.pdf

European Parliament (2023) Proposal for a harmonised mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling. In “A European Green Deal”.
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-a-european-green-deal/file-mandatory-front-of-pack-nutrition-labelling

Liu, P.J., Wisdom, J., Roberto, C.A., Liu, L.J. & Ubel, P.A. (2014). Using Behavioral Economics to Design More Effective Food Policies to Address Obesity. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 36(1), 6–24. https://doi.org/10.1093/aepp/ppt027

Statista (2023) Interesse der Bevölkerung in Deutschland an gesunder Ernährung und gesunder Lebensweise von 2019 bis 2023.
https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/170913/umfrage/interesse-an-gesunder-ernaehrung-und-lebensweise/

Statistisches Bundesamt (2023) Mehr als die Hälfte der Erwachsenen hat Übergewicht.
https://www.destatis.de/Europa/DE/Thema/Bevoelkerung-Arbeit-Soziales/Gesundheit/Uebergewicht.html

WIOD (2022) Anteil von Todesfällen aufgrund von Fettleibigkeit in ausgewählten Ländern weltweit im Jahr 2019 [Graph]. https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1246951/umfrage/todesfaelle-aufgrund-von-fettleibigkeit-in-ausgewaehlten-laendern/

World Health Organization (2023) Obesity.
https://www.who.int/health-topics/obesity/#tab=tab_3