Carrefour wields Nutri-Score weapon as France debates tax on sugar

If you think back to the ‘shrinkflation’ labels Carrefour slapped on its shelves last year, the French retailer has been known to adopt something of a combative stance when it comes to suppliers.

This week, Carrefour announced a similar move that might, among some major manufacturers, jeter un pavé dans la mare (that’s set the cat among the pigeons for our UK readers).

But the grocer’s latest announcement comes against the backdrop of debates in France over a tax on sugar.

Carrefour is demanding that suppliers include Nutri-Score information on products sold through carrefour.fr

And the retailer, which has used Nutri-Score nutrition labels on its own-brand products since 2019, said manufacturers that oppose the move will be named on its website.

The voluntary Nutri-Score labels, devised in France and used in several European countries, have long been a controversial system, beloved by campaigners but a source of consternation among some manufacturers (and even governments).

In September, one early supporter, Danone, removed the labels from some of its products after complaining about changes to how the A to E scores are calculated.

Danone (and French dairy peer Lactalis) refused to be drawn on Carrefour’s move, pointing Just Food to ANIA, the French food-industry trade body. ANIA hadn’t returned requests for comment at the time of writing. Neither had Mondelez nor Ferrero.

Nestlé, however, did respond. "Our goal is to continue to encourage consumers to use Nutri-Score as a tool for providing clear nutritional labelling on the packaging. This is why we welcome the measure introduced by Carrefour, as it will help to enable consumers to compare products and make informed decisions and towards healthier and more balanced diets," the company's French subsidiary told us.

Carrefour’s decision was applauded by Serge Hercberg, one of the French academics who devised Nutri-Score, in the 2010s. "Congratulations Carrefour! Nutritional transparency is a consumer right and a duty of manufacturers.
It is not normal that Ferrero, Coca-Cola, Lactalis, Mars, Mondelez, Danone, Bjorg… refuse to display the Nutri-Score on their products, knowing that it is useful information to help consumers make informed choices when making a purchase," Hercberg posted on LinkedIn.

The retailer's move was also backed by campaigners. "The more products that are labelled with the Nutri-Score, the more useful it will be for consumers, allowing them to make better-informed nutritional comparisons in the supermarket," Emma Calvert, senior food policy officer at BEUC, the pan-European consumer advocacy group, told Just Food.