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Carrefour Italia won’t carry out Nutriscore on Italian products, PDO and IGP

In compliance with the Antitrust resolution that bound the group to use it rarely, informing consumers

Carrefour Italy is lining up with the instruction of the Antitrust Autorhity on the Nutriscore issue, the new ‘traffic light’ labeling that could possibly be imposed by the UE on food, which continues to spark controversy among experts. Carrefour Italia will not apply this labeling system on private label products, commissioned by Carrefour Italy to their suppliers and marketed in Italy and/or overseas; on PDO products (Protected denomination of origin), IGP products (Indication of Geographic Protection), on certified traditional specialties (SPT), on products of Italian food tradition (cold cuts, cheese, olive oil), regardless of the production place; and on products labeled ‘Terre d’Italia’.

Carrefour Italy will endure including in its assortment a limited selection of private label products, marketed in Italy by the French society Interdis, part of the Carrefour Group France, that enforces the voluntary nutritional labeling system, Nutriscore. The sale though will come with an informative sign that will explain that Nutriscore ‘does not consider caloric needs and individual nutritional profile and does not represent an absolute salubrity judgement of a food but is relative to the nutriotional composition of the latter, referred to 100 grams of product and not a serving size. All food on the market have to be taken into consideration in an environment of a diet that is balanced and miscellaneous’.

The poster will also contain the following: ‘This logo is not present on every other Carrefour labeled products as Italy has not adopted this voluntary nutritional declaration system. The NutriScore system express an evaluation of the food based on the nutrional profile, keeping count of the presence of unfavorable elements (for example, calories, fats, salt, etc.) and favorable elements (fruit, fiber, vegetable, etc.), assigning a score in letters (A, B, C, D, E) and in chromatic scale (green, yellow, orange and red)’. 

Antitrust had initiated a procedure on Carrefour Italia, GS Spa and Interdis, of the Carrefour group: the resolution in which the commitments undertaken by Carrefour Italia are accepted and made mandatory is dated 12/7/2022 and was published in the Bulletin of the Agcm of 1 August 2022.

The Nutriscore system is opposed in Italy by businesses, farmers and the government, accused of orienting the consumer towards the intake of foods deemed favorable to health on the basis of excessive synthesis and simplification. The Nutriscore expresses the nutritional quality of food through two related scales: a chromatic one divided into five shades from green to red and an alphabetical one with letters ranging from A (highest quality) to E.

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EFA News - European Food Agency
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