Legitimacy of Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels: Controversy Over the Deployment of the Nutri-Score in Italy

Background: Front-of-pack nutrition labels (FoPLs) aim at increasing transparency and consumers’ awareness of the nutritional composition of pre-packed food products in order to improve the nutritional quality of their food choices. Nevertheless, the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score - the FoPL officially adopted in France and several other European countries - is subject to both technical and political controversy, particularly in Italy. In this study, we investigated how and by whom the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score, recognized by several institutional authorities, could be deconstructed within a specific system of norms, values and beliefs among Italian stakeholders. Methods: A netnography completed with qualitative interviews with eight Italian and French nutrition and public health experts were carried out to highlight the dimensions (pragmatic, normative and cognitive) in which the Nutri-Score’s legitimacy is being challenged among the stakeholders involved in FoPLs’ implementation in Italy. The degree of influence and the position of these stakeholders on the debate around the Nutri-Score were assessed through the Stakeholder Theory (SHT), using their respective level of power, legitimacy and urgency. Furthermore, we compared the Italian and the French contexts on the issue. Results: The direct implication of political parties and media outlets in framing the Italian debate around Nutri-Score as well as the high influence of corporate unions, led to a different political outcome than in France. Results also show that the deconstruction of the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score in Italy pertained mainly to its pragmatic dimension according to the Italian public health experts. Nevertheless, its two other dimensions (normative and cognitive) are also questioned by high-influence stakeholders. Conclusion: Due to the limited mobilization of scientific expertise over the issue, the debate in Italy stayed centered around the "attack" of the Nutri-Score to the Italian way of life, mixing up concepts such as Made in Italy products and the Mediterranean diet.


Federalimentar e
These systems, be they the English "traffic lights", the French "Nutriscore", or the black octagons adopted by Chile and Peru, do not induce consumers to make healthier choices, since they put the emphasis on individual foods rather than on the diet as a whole. In fact, leading scientists and nutritionists agree that a good diet is achieved through a varied and balanced diet, with appropriate intakes of all nutrients. Color-coded labeling systems, on the other hand, tend to discourage consumers from buying all products high in salt, saturated fat or sugar, branding them as unhealthy. These products include all the most typical foods of the Italian tradition and of the Mediterranean diet, despite their unquestionable quality". [...] "All the main health indicators rank Italy among the healthiest countries in the world, starting with longevity. -said Ivano Vacondio, president of Federalimentare -One of the main reasons for this state of grace is our diet based on the Mediterranean diet, whose healthiness is certified by 50 years of studies. On the contrary, an algorithm like the one on which the Nutriscore is based, cannot boast scientific bases consolidated over the years that are so solid as to suggest to populations to drastically change their eating habits" -concluded the president.

Fratelli d'Italia
"Do you know what the #NutriScore is? A labeling program by a French government agency that favors French products over Italian ones."; "While the French are inventing the #Nutriscore to attack Italian products, the best diets ranking 2020 certifies that the #Mediterranean Diet is the best in the world. Let's defend our products, our traditions and our lifestyle." "The government is committed in the European Union to oppose the hypothesis of adoption of the 'Nutri-score' as a uniform labeling system likely to convey distorting nutritional messages and potentially penalizing and harmful to the national economy. Italy is universally recognized as a nation that exports quality of life and food. Initiatives are needed to preserve and protect the Italian food sector and the excellence of Made in Italy from possible distorting effects on competition and fair international economic competition."

Other political parties
The "no" of Italian politics The battle against the French classification system -not binding, but already adopted in France, Germany,

Commits the Government: 1) to take vigorous action at European level through the activation of all useful instruments to oppose the hypothesis of the adoption of the "Nutri-score", as a uniform labelling system likely to convey distorting nutritional messages and potentially penalizing and harmful to the national economy; 2) to preserve and protect the Italian food sector and the excellence of Made in Italy from possible distorting effects on competition and fair international economic competition of European and internal policies within the common market developed on the basis of initiatives by individual governments of other Member States and characterized by not inconsiderable elements of hostility and aggressiveness, as
in the case of the Nutri-score; 3) to propose, alternatively, at European level, a system of foodstuff labelling suitable for relaunching the fundamental need to spread the Mediterranean diet, recognized worldwide by UNESCO as an intangible transnational asset, and to integrate the Italian proposal for a battery label for foods with a visual reference to this diet; 4) to promote, both at European and international and global level, the recognition of the importance of the specific PDO and PGI foodstuffs and their profound cultural as well as food value, promoting specific labelling that enhances these products and excludes or exempts them from the obligation to adopt systems that do not distinguish them from any other foodstuff lacking the peculiar and unrepeatable characteristics that mark them.

National Institutes
(Medium-high influence)

Walter Ricciardi
Nevertheless, La Stampa also highlights the opinion of Walter Ricciardi, a transalpine doctor who defends the French labeling system: "Some people say that Nutri-Score penalizes Parmigiano Reggiano, mozzarella or olive oil. This is nonsense, because the C value only means 'do not exaggerate' and D 'eat once a week'. France does not try to favor its cheese. In this country, this mechanism has already led to a small reversal of the trend among consumers. Such a system could therefore also stimulate Italian producers to be more careful in the ingredients they use."

Walter Ricciardi
Nutriscore: doctor Walter Ricciardi: "No food in itself is dangerous, even the fattiest and most sugary foods can be consumed in a balanced diet. This product was opposed by French cheesemakers in the same way that Italian producers opposed it." LA7 (TV) 20

Silvio Garattini, Walter Ricciardi, Mario Serafini, Paolo Vineis and Elio Riboli
The nutritional information initiative "Nutri-Score", developed by independent university researchers from the University of Paris and INSERM, has been the object of various attacks and distancing in Italy in recent days, misunderstanding it as a tool through which Europe would like to penalize Italian products and the Mediterranean diet. Again, olive oil, in the Nutri-Score, has the best score for added fats (C), and not, as has been incorrectly said, the "red light". And this in absolute coherence with the recommendations for public health that, in Italy as elsewhere, encourage consumers to favor it over other vegetable oils and especially over animal fats.