Nutri-Score: What exactly “A” means for your food

Established in 2017 in France, the mention Nutri-Score was created by the Ministry of Solidarity and Health, with the help of Santé Publique France and based on the work of Professor Serge Hercberg (president of the national nutrition and health program (PNNS) and director of the nutritional epidemiology research unit), as well as the expertise of the National Agency for Health Security (ANSES) and the Superior Council of Public Health (HCSP). ).

What is the Nutri-Score and its rating scale?

By adopting the Nutri-Score, the government’s aim was to make nutritional information easier for everyone to understand, thanks to a universal classification grid divided into 5 colors and 5 letters: from dark green or A to dark orange or EA being the best grade. for a quality food, And the lowest.

Each food is classified according to its nutritional quality per 100gr or 100mL, according to a balance between the essential nutrients (fiber, proteins, fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, vegetable oils) and those whose consumption should be limited (empty calories, saturated fatty acidssugars, salt).

Nutri-Score: these notes are not always objective

If the adoption of the Nutri-Score started from a laudable intention, in reality, it is sometimes not based on the right criteria. It is interesting, for example, on basic foods such as vegetables or preparations and ready meals.. This allows you to make the right choices by favoring short ingredient lists and without excesses of harmful materials, for those times when you cannot cook by yourself.

But the Nutri-Score sometimes causes misunderstandings. Butter, for example, is classified E because of its richness in fat (82g) and especially in saturated fatty acids (57 g) per 100 g. In any case, in reality, we do not consume a priori 100 g of butter in a single meal, at the risk of getting sick. It is quite healthy to consume a reasonable dose during the day to benefit from interesting nutrients for our bones, our skin, our brain, such as casein (milk proteins) and mineral salts.

On the contrary, we increasingly see an A classification on packages of chocolate cereals dedicated to children (such as Chocapic or Nesquik). In reality, this just means that of all the chocolate cereals on the market, these are less rich in sugar and salt, while remaining ultra-processed and very sweet (8g per serving, or 30% of the recommended daily intake of added sugar). Their consumption should therefore only be occasional and moderate, despite an A rating.

If you want to make the right choices, it is therefore smarter to compare the evaluations of two products of the same category and also to put things in perspective according to the amount of product consumed in a single meal.