Nutri-Score and Fats—Friends or Foes? A Critical Perspective on Evaluation of Food Products According to Their Fat Content

Abstract

Providing effective information to consumers on the properties of a food product, including its potential impact on health, is one of the methods for improving the public's diet. Front-of-pack labeling is becoming increasingly important in this field. One of the most popular in recent times is the French Nutri-Score system. The aim of this article is to offer a critical perspective on how the Nutri-Score system assesses food products with high fat content or the presence of nutritionally beneficial fats. The analysis is based on the conceptual framework of the Nutri-Score system and uses examples of food products available on the market to examine its key features and limitations and also supports this with examples from literature. It was concluded that the Nutri-Score system has improved significantly over the years and better assesses food products. However, it still has some systemic shortcomings, including the lack of consideration of the nature and proportion of individual fatty acids, not taking into account the source of these fatty acids, and not compensating for negative points for the high energy value of high-fat products.