• Since 2016, the Nutri-score logo affixed to packaging has enabled consumers to compare the nutritional value of foodstuffs.

  • Optional, this labeling could become compulsory next year to the chagrin of products with official quality signs, often poorly classified.

  • Roquefort producers have decided to step up to the plate to ask to be exempted.

In the land of Roquefort, we are not angry with the Nutri-score ranking.

The labeling system, affixed to the products and which allows their nutritional value to be compared, has aroused the wrath of producers of the famous Aveyron sheep's cheese for several months.

Like nearly 90% of traditional cheeses, the logo affixed to the Roquefort boxes oscillates between D and E, the worst marks, classified in red.

" This is paradoxical.

Ultra-processed industrial products with preservatives can have A or B, while our very natural local products are stigmatized ”, points out Sébastien Vignette, the secretary general of the General Confederation of Roquefort.

Supported by a number of elected officials from Aveyron and Occitanie, his organization is asking for an exemption in the name of tradition and respect for a gastronomic heritage.

Now optional, Nutri-score could become mandatory from 2022.

Rational transparency

Since then, the defenders of the local products of Occitanie, in particular those under official quality sign, have decided to step up to denounce the situation.

“Between A and E, if I don't know, I naturally go towards the A. For Roquefort, it doesn't make sense.

The specifications are already an act of responsibility towards the consumer.

The best is the enemy of good.

The desire for transparency due to the consumer must be rational and common sense, ”insists the deputy for Aveyron, Stéphane Mazars (LREM).

The mobilization initiated by the PDO Roquefort, which markets 7,000 tonnes of Roquefort per year, 25% of which is exported, is far from isolated.

“We are not in a fight against Nutri-score, he insists, if it is reserved for pre-processed industrial products.

It is commendable to inform the citizen.

We are fighting the application to PDO products, ”says Sébastien Vignette.

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Society

Occitanie: Does the Nutri-Score logo threaten local products under label?

  • Nutrition

  • Cheese

  • Consumption

  • Food

  • Toulouse

  • Agribusiness

  • Society