If you want to see how university academics can create a healthy food rating system that ignores dietary guidelines, portion control, the reality of how people consume food and is also based on deeply flawed science, look no further than Europe's Nutri-Score system. It may be the world's best example of how public health experts' greatest expertise appears to lie in undermining their own credibility.Nutri-Score is a front-of-pack (FOP) label based on an algorithm that classifies all foods between A (healthiest) and E (least healthy), depending on their nutrient profile. It based on work done at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. It has been adopted by Nestle and some other companies in France, Belgium and elsewhere.Europe's Nutri-Score tells you, for example, that Nesquik (main ingredient sugar) is healthier than ham. The dietitians and academics who defend the system say that it is not intended that people compare across categories - it is intended only to compare foods within the same category, hence ham with ham and one powdered drink with another.
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