EUROPE – The multinational food and beverage company, Nestlé has announced that it will use Nutri-Score nutrition labeling in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland, starting in the first half of 2020.

The company plans to implement Nutri-Score across brands of its wholly-owned businesses over a two-year period. In total, more than 5000 products in the five countries will feature Nutri-Score.

Cereal Partners Worldwide, the international breakfast venture between Nestlé and General Mills, will also implement Nutri-Score on its product packaging in the same countries.

Nutri-Score is a voluntary front-of-pack scheme that classifies foods and beverages according to their nutritional profile. It is a color-coded system with a scale ranging from A (healthier choices) to E (less healthy choices).

Marco Settembri, CEO of Nestlé for Europe, Middle East and North Africa said: “Our ambition is to have one of the healthiest options in every product category we offer. Nutri-Score will motivate us and help track our progress.

“I am proud that Nestlé is the first company to roll out Nutri-Score at this scale in Europe. We now want to move quickly as we are sure this is the right way forward.”

Nestlé and Cereal Partners Worldwide are beginning the roll-out of Nutri-Score in European countries that already support the system.

The two companies said that they are ready to implement it in further countries that request it or notify it to the European Commission.

David Clark, President and CEO of Cereal Partners Worldwide said: “Our pursuit of a better breakfast is never finished. As leaders in the breakfast cereal sector, we can help everyone have a healthy, nutritious, and tasty start to the day with our cereals.

“Our consumers are at the heart of this quest – past, present, and future. That’s why we’re using Nutri-Score to guide the development and communication of the nutritional value of our products.”

Nestlé brands on which Nutri-Score will appear include Garden Gourmet, Nesquik chocolate-flavored milk, Buitoni pizzas, Nescafé coffee, Maggi culinary products and KitKat chocolate.

Cereal Partners Worldwide will use Nutri-Score on its breakfast cereals, including Fitness and Chocapic. Some products such as infant formula are out of scope or fall under separate regulations.

Monique Goyens, Director-General of BEUC said: “BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, applauds Nestlé’s decision to broadly roll out Nutri-Score.

“Research conducted in several countries demonstrate indeed that Nutri-Score is currently the best-performing scheme in aiding consumers to make healthier choices.

“Therefore, we consider Nutri-Score to be a major tool to contribute to tackling the obesity crisis. We can only recommend that other companies follow Nestlé’s excellent example and display Nutri-Score on their products.

“Moving forward, we believe that all European consumers should benefit from Nutri-Score. This is why several consumer organisations, who are members of the BEUC network, have launched a petition asking the European Commission to make Nutri-Score mandatory across Europe.”

The ambitious implementation plan follows on from Nestlé’s announcement in June 2019 expressing support for Nutri-Score in continental Europe, to support European and local public health agendas.