Nutrition
Nutri-Score: how does it actually work?
Nutri-Score rates a food from A to E using its nutrition declaration per 100 g or 100 ml. It weighs the components to limit — energy, sugars, saturated fat, salt — against those to favour, such as fibre, protein, and fruit, vegetables and pulses.
It describes the product, not the person eating it. Two people with opposite needs see exactly the same letter.
Last reviewed: Written and reviewed by the PRODX team against the sources listed below.
What the letters represent
Nutri-Score is a nutrient profiling model: it computes a score from the declared composition, then converts that score into a letter and a colour. A is the most favourable profile in its category, E the least.
The comparison is useful between comparable products — two breakfast cereals, two pizzas. Comparing an oil’s letter with a yoghurt’s teaches you very little.
What changed in 2023
A revised algorithm was published on 1 August 2023, and products placed on the market after 31 December 2023 must in principle use it. The stated aim was closer alignment with national food-based dietary guidelines.
- stricter rating of high sugar and salt content;
- a stricter approach to non-nutritive sweeteners;
- better differentiation of milks (saturated fat, energy) and milk-based beverages (sugars);
- drinks based on cocoa, coffee or chicory computed per 100 g/ml as consumed, after dilution.
Under the revised algorithm water remains the only beverage rated A, and plain skimmed and semi-skimmed milk are rated B.
Who decides all this
Nutri-Score was introduced by Santé publique France in 2017, which owns the trademark. Since 2021 a transnational steering committee and scientific committee keep it consistent across the engaged countries — Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.
Displaying it is voluntary: a manufacturer chooses whether to put it on the pack. That is why so many products do not carry one. In November 2025 the French National Assembly voted in favour of making its display mandatory on pre-packed foods.
What Nutri-Score cannot tell you
It does not know your allergies, your dietary rules or your health context. A product rated A can contain exactly the allergen you have to avoid.
It is about 100 g, not a real serving. It says nothing about how much you eat, or where the product sits in your diet as a whole. And its absence from a pack carries no nutritional meaning at all: it only means the manufacturer did not put one there.
What PRODX does with it
PRODX shows the official Nutri-Score where one exists — without recomputing or overriding it — and puts a score calculated for your profile beside it. The two readings are shown separately, because they answer different questions: “what is this product like?” and “what is it like for me?”
Sources
- 1.Nutri-Score 2023 update — Nutri-Score Scientific Committee, Nature Food, 2024
- 2.Activity report of the transnational governance of Nutri-Score — Nutri-Score Steering Committee (Ministère de la Santé, France), 2024
- 3.Nutri-Score — Santé publique France, 2026
Check this on a real product
Reading about a label is one thing. Scanning the pack in front of you and seeing it read against your own profile is the other half.
Nutrition scanner