Danone stops displaying the Nutri-Score on its drinking yogurts, whose scores have been downgraded

The display of the Nutri-Score, with its simple colour code and letters from A to E, is still voluntary pending a binding European agreement.

Logo designer denounces a step backwards “lamentable”The food giant Danone, one of the first companies to adopt the Nutri-Score label, announced on Wednesday, September 4 that it would no longer display it on its drinking yogurts, which now have lower ratings.

“We have decided to gradually remove the Nutri-Score from our dairy and plant-based drinkable products from our brands starting in September 2024”the manufacturer said in a statement to the press. This concerns the liquid versions of the brands Actimel, Danonino, Hi-Pro, Danone and Activia, a spokesperson told AFP.

With a simple colour code, from green to red, and letters from A to E, the Nutri-Score is designed to guide consumers towards products that are better for their health. While waiting for a harmonised and mandatory labelling at European level, companies display it on a voluntary basis in seven countries: Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Others, such as in Italy, are fiercely opposed to it.

Danone claims to have been “pioneer in France”using the Nutri-Score since its launch in 2017. But the manufacturer and other manufacturers are contesting an update of the calculation method, decided in 2023 by the scientific committee of the Nutri-Score and which has caused certain scores to plummet: Actimel, promoted by the group as a health product, for example went from A or B to D. The Danonino drinking yogurt for children also plunged to D, considered “like a sugary soda drink”deplores the spokesperson, noting that Danonino yogurt consumed with a spoon “stay in B” despite “similar nutritional values”.

“It is lamentable, extremely shocking, to see that Danone is abandoning the Nutri-Score when the rules of the game established by scientists no longer please it”Serge Hercberg, professor of nutrition at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University and designer of the Nutri-Score, reacted to AFP. The professor believes that it is “relevant” to note differently solid and drinkable yogurt, even with an equivalent quantity of sugars: the second is mainly taken outside of meals, like “liquid snack”at the risk of bringing “to significant consumption among children and adolescents”.

“This helps to alert the consumer that these products should be consumed in a reasonable manner.”

Serge Hercberg, professor of nutrition at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University

to AFP

UFC-Que-Choisir denounces “Danone’s pseudo-nutritional argument” and believes that the episode brings “further proof that displaying the Nutri-Score on a voluntary basis does not ensure that consumers are properly informed”The consumer association Foodwatch described it as ““unacceptable” there “reverse” of the French multinational. “Danone should no longer make us believe that it is concerned about the health of consumers”criticized Audrey Morice, the organization’s campaign manager, in a reaction sent to AFP.