Simplified nutritional information system (NutriScore)
The outgoing Portuguese government, through the Secretary of State for Health, published the Normative Order No. 3637/2024 of 4 April, which adopts a simplified food product nutritional labelling system, Nutri-Score, as a public health measure and to promote healthy eating.
The aim is to enable consumers to make healthy food choices through simplified information on food labelling, using a colour code on a scale from A to E and from green to red.
The adoption by FBOs of this new nutritional information system is optional.
This new nutritional information system is intended to complement and simplify the mandatory nutritional information on food labels under the terms of Reg. 1169/2011, of 25 October, which was considered complex by the legislator and unclear to the consumer.
On the other hand, the aim is to standardise all existing voluntary simplified nutrition information systems, avoiding consumer confusion.
However, the realisation of this measure depends on its implementation by the Directorate-General for Health within 120 days.
With the recent change of government in Portugal, the practical application of this measure depends on the priorities that will be defined by the new government.
This simplified nutritional information raises a lot of questions for the FBOs, as it treats different foods in the same way and doesn’t emphasise specific characteristics that can be found in foods of the same type and that make them suitable for a healthy diet (e.g. olive oil, a typical product of a Mediterranean diet).