Europe’s biggest dietary problem? Lobbyists, says Nutri-Score creator.

BRUSSELS — The biggest dietary problem facing Europeans is not excess meat, sugar, or salt, says Serge Hercberg, professor of nutrition at the Sorbonne and creator of the Nutri-Score food-labeling system. Nor is it alcohol, artificial sweeteners, or even a lack of fruit, vegetables and whole grains.

The most confounding obstacle, Hercberg told POLITICO in an interview, is deception by self-serving agri-food lobbies.

“It’s very difficult to identify one ingredient or behavior. Moreover, we know what measures work,” he reflected, citing VAT changes, advertising restrictions, healthier public procurement policies, and of course his own labeling system. “The big challenge is being capable of thwarting lobbies who oppose those measures.”

It’s a sobering message from the man behind the “five fruit and veg per day” slogan, who has watched as right-wing politicians and corporate interests successfully buried the five-color logo, which was adopted in France in 2017 and was seen as the likeliest candidate for an EU-wide front-of-pack labeling scheme during the last European Commission.

Since 2022, however, Nutri-Score has been in full retreat, caught up in the same anti-Green Deal backlash that stymied laws to reduce pesticide use, promote animal welfare and curb deforestation. Italy has led that counterattack, driving culture-war narratives about an “anti-Italian system” that unfairly marks down its meats, cheeses and olive oil.

Greece, Hungary, Romania and others have joined in, bolstered by support from EU agricultural association Copa-Cogeca and its national members such as France’s FNSEA, Italy’s Coldiretti and Confagricoltura, and Spain’s Asaja. 

“It’s caricatural,” said Hercberg, noting that olive oil is well-graded with a B and that meats and cheeses get lower scores because they should be eaten in moderation. “I remind them that today it’s in the countries of the south — Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal — that the prevalence of overweight and childhood obesity is the highest.”

Nevertheless, Italy has backed the alternative NutrInform, whose algorithm displays five batteries (calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt) and the percent of a person’s daily needs that the product meets. The French scientist is skeptical: “If tomorrow there was a logo shown to be more effective, I’d abandon Nutri-Score immediately,” he vowed.

For now, he isn’t letting go and complains of stagnation in the takeup of Nutri-Score. Portugal’s new center-right government dropped the system this summer, leaving only six EU countries whose health ministry still recommends it: France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. 

Hercberg blames what many are calling “gastro populism,” which he described as an “attempt to flatter the identitarian fiber, to make people believe we’re threatening their core values.” He cited the campaign rhetoric of far-right parties ahead of the EU election in June, where they gained their strongest-ever representation in the European Parliament.

But Nutri-Score’s outlook has only worsened since then, with the new commissioners for agriculture and health — Christophe Hansen and Olivér Várhelyi — appearing to have shelved the idea of proposing an EU law on food labeling. That’s despite a recent report by the European Court of Auditors urging the EU executive to do just that. 

“It’s really absurd,” Hercberg concluded, highlighting how the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimated last month that bad diets inflict nearly €1 trillion in hidden health costs on the continent.

“The big problem in Europe is this incapacity to not give way to lobbies and put public health first.”