Detox. No, the nutriscore does not blame Italian gastronomy.

An intox with Mediterranean sauce.

The Italian government takes very little notice of the nutri-score, the labeling, which notes the nutritional quality of a product with a color code and a letter from A to E. Recommended by the French authorities, it meets strong resistance at the level in Europe, particularly among the major agri-food groups.

But also among certain political leaders, as in Italy therefore. The latest criticism came from Italy’s agriculture minister, from the far-right Fratelli d’Italia party, Francesco Lollobrigida. In a tweet, he criticizes the nutri-score for favoring processed products, such as sodas or industrial pizzas, by rating them A. To the detriment of good Italian products, such as spaghetti or olive oil, which would be rated E.

Why is this wrong?

Almost all of the minister’s examples are wrong.
The best example? Spaghetti. All packages reviewed by Desintox actually have a nutri-score A, the exact opposite of what Lollobrigida claims. Ditto for olive oil: for several years, it has been rated C, and not E. And it should even pass in nutri-score B this year, thanks to a revision of the system, while the oil sunflower would remain in the orange category (and not green as claimed by Lollobrigida).
For the independent media Il Fatto Alimentare, the Italian minister is only repeating the speech and the intox of the lobbies opposed to the nutri-score. Who claim that the system would penalize regional dishes in favor of industrial products. However, studies carried out by consumer associations show the opposite.