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Consumption will remove olive oil from the Nutriscore labeling system to protect the product

The Ministry of Consumption will remove olive oil from the European nutritional traffic light that it will implement in Spain this year. This system, called Nutriscore and which is already in countries like France, classifies products and labels them by color, based on their nutritional properties. It does it through an algorithm, but the sector had criticized that this system does not position olive oil well and it equates it to that of other less beneficial fats, such as rapeseed oil.

This traffic light evaluates packaged foods within the same category and classifies them by color (from green to red, from A to E). According to the algorithm, this product of the Mediterranean diet would have a C, that is, it would be in the yellow zone, with a score of three out of five.

According to Consumption, and as the sector demanded, this evaluation could harm its commercialization, since the traffic light “does not reflect the nutritional benefits” of liquid gold. In addition, it classifies products within the same category (only fats), but not with other ultra-processed ones, for example.

This European front labeling system it will be approved in Spain before spring and for now it will only be voluntary for manufacturers. Some countries, such as France or Germany, which already have it implemented, have shown their position in favor of olive oil leaving this labeling system.

Voluntary system

Spain is only an observer member of Nutriscore’s governance committee, so the decision has to be approved by its voting members.

“We asked that olive oil be removed from category C because they put it at the same height as rapeseed oil and it is a vegetable fat, but it is heart-healthy, “Carmen Crespo, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Andalusian Government, told EFE.

In his opinion, delimiting the definition of olive oil as “a vegetable fat” supposes “fraud to the consumer”, so that its properties as a “heart-healthy” fat have to be reflected in “any category that is established at the level of the EU”.

“Almost 70% of the oils sold by Spain are exported to more than 175 countries around the world, especially to the European Union, where consumers are still not sufficiently aware of the benefits of the product “, pointed out the interprofessional of olive oil Europa Press.

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