Two Dimensions of Nutritional Value: Nutri-Score and NOVA

Front-of-pack labels can improve the ability of consumers to identify which foods are healthier, making them a useful public health tool. Nutri-Score is a front-of-pack labelling system adopted by several European countries. This system ranks foods according to their nutritional quality, but does no...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nutrients 2021-08, Vol.13 (8), p.2783
Main Authors: Romero Ferreiro, Carmen, Lora Pablos, David, Gómez de la Cámara, Agustín
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Classification
Consumption
Descriptive labeling
Food
Food consumption
Food labeling
food labelling
Food processing
Food products
food quality
Health aspects
Health care
Identification and classification
Labels
Laboratories
Methods
Nutrients
Nutrition
Nutritional aspects
Nutritive value
Open Food Facts
Processed foods
Public health
Quality assessment
ultra-processed foods
Vegetarianism
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Summary:Front-of-pack labels can improve the ability of consumers to identify which foods are healthier, making them a useful public health tool. Nutri-Score is a front-of-pack labelling system adopted by several European countries. This system ranks foods according to their nutritional quality, but does not consider other dimensions such as the degree of food processing. The aim of this study is to compare the nutritional quality (as assessed by Nutri-Score) and the ultra-processing (as assessed by the NOVA classification) of foods in the Open Food Facts database. A simple correspondence analysis was carried out to study the relationship between the two systems. Ultra-processed foods (NOVA 4) were found in all Nutri-Score categories, ranging from 26.08% in nutritional category A, 51.48% in category B, 59.09% in category C, 67.39% in category D to up to 83.69% in nutritional category E. Given the negative effect that the consumption of ultra-processed foods has on different aspects of health, front-of-pack labelling with Nutri-Score should at least be accompanied by complementary labelling indicating the level of processing, such as the NOVA classification.
ISSN:2072-6643
2072-6643
DOI:10.3390/nu13082783