The "Nutri Score" system alerts the extra virgin olive oil sector
The purpose of this system is to make it easier for the consumer to understand the nutritional information of the products. It is a simple system, which uses graphically with colors (traffic light system) and letters (ABCDE), how healthy is a product.
So far, so good. That is, a healthy food would have an A and green color. An unhealthy food would get red and an E.
In short, the algorithm gives the best result the fewer points the food gets.
What makes you add points?
So, the negative aspects like the amount of calories, sugars, saturated fat, and salt.
What subtracts points?
Health benefits such as the percentage of vegetables or fruits or the amount of protein, vitamins and fiber are reduced.
And with this system, extra virgin olive oil, a staple of the Mediterranean diet (with many scientific studies that demonstrate the quality of fats and guarantee health benefits) gets an incredibly low rating for its calorie content, fats total and saturated fats.
And the extra virgin olive oil sector, we see that there is something wrong with this classification system. Because? Because they are not considering the amount of unsaturated acid, antioxidants and polyphenols provided by extra virgin olive oil.
As a result, ultra-processed products, soft drinks, sugary cereals … are better valued than extra virgin olive oil or Iberian ham.
The controversy is on the table.
For or against?
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