Nutri-Score is the new food choice logo in the Netherlands

Nutri-Score has been legally designated as the new food choice logo in the Netherlands. The logo may be officially used from 1 January 2024. Supermarkets and food manufacturers are expected to take until mid-2024 to put the logo on their products. And Dutch products that already have a Nutri-Score must be adapted to the new calculation method from 1 July 2024.

After careful consideration and review by the Health Council, state secretary Maarten van Ooijen (VWS) has decided to introduce the Nutri-Score logo as part of the National Prevention Agreement.

Calculation method

In recent years, the Nutri-Score calculation method has been scientifically scrutinised at the request of the Netherlands. This has led to an international revision of the logo's calculation method, making it better suited to the Dutch situation. With the new method, for example, the distinction between wholemeal bread and white bread improves greatly because wholemeal bread usually gets an A and white bread mainly a C. Frozen pizzas do not usually score higher than a C with the revised algorithm.

Further improvement remains necessary 

The Nutri-Score logo is not perfect, and further development and improvement will continue to be needed in the future. State Secretary Van Ooijen supports the recommendations made by the Health Council for further improvement and will include them in discussions in the international Nutri-Score steering committee. 

Legislation and communication

The regulations needed to use Nutri-Score will be published in the near future. For consumers, communication on how Nutri-Score can help with healthier shopping, in-store and online, is being worked on with supermarkets and food manufacturers, among others.

Rijksoverheid.nl

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