“As long as we don’t force manufacturers, they are playing with consumers’ health,” regrets the NGO Foodwatch.

The NGO denounces the refusal to comply with the label on the part of several large agri-food groups.

“As long as we don’t force manufacturers, as long as we don’t constrain them by regulations, they do more or less what they want, they play at ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and they play with the health of consumers”regrets on franceinfo this Thursday Audrey Morice, campaign manager of the NGO Foodwatch, while Danone announces to remove the Nutri-score from its drinkable yogurts. This label allows to inform consumers of the impact on the health of the products consumed, but the French company criticizes the change of the method of calculation and the degradation of its products.

Questioning whether Danone’s approach of requesting a right to review the calculation of the Nutri-score is legitimate, “It comes down to asking whether it is legitimate to remove nutritional information.”. “For Foodwatch, the answer is no: health must not come after Danone’s brand image or its methodological disagreement with an algorithm that has been revised by scientists”she says. “If a product is too fatty, too sweet or too salty, obviously it is important that consumers can know this and make choices for their health.”she sums up.

The problem is, however, broader than Danone’s decision, according to the campaign manager at Foodwatch, “It’s simple, it’s been ten years since the Nutri-score was created, and the food industry is opposed to it”She cites in particular “giants like Lactalis, Unilever or Mondelez who still systematically refuse to ask it, or Bjorg which, last November replaced the Nutri-score with the Planet-score, which is an environmental score, and so it’s another question”.

“All this says one thing, that is that as soon as we do not force manufacturers, as soon as we do not constrain them by regulations, they do more or less what they want, they play at “out of sight, out of mind” and they play with the health of consumers.”In particular, she denounces the European lobbying of Italy, which is very hostile to the compulsory implementation of this label. “in the name of Italian heritage and gastronomy”. Yet, “It is a nutritional tool that helps to make healthier, simpler choices in stores with regard to all these chronic and preventable diseases linked to diet, it is urgent to make it mandatory”she pleads.