Latest / Dam Parenting / Why Dutch Supermarket “Healthy” Foods Can Be Misleading | Nutri-Score Explained

Transcript

Why Dutch Supermarket “Healthy” Foods Can Be Misleading | Nutri-Score Explained · Dam Parenting

• 0:00
  When we started moving beyond the easy first foods for our
• 0:02
  little one, the fruit and vegetables and simple purees,
• 0:05
  and we were beginning to buy more crackers and snacks, the
• 0:08
  pouches and spreads and you know those healthy supermarket
• 0:10
  options, well, I realized I had absolutely no idea what I was
• 0:14
  looking at. I mean, why does one snack get
• 0:17
  those bright green A's and yet nuts or hummus were getting C's
• 0:21
  or D's? Or why was crisp sometimes
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  healthier when you had a bigger bag?
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  And why do so many baby snacks look healthy while the
• 0:28
  ingredients list can tell a different story?
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  If you ever stood in a supermarket aisle trying to
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  decode a packet while your child was already reaching for it,
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  this episode is for you. Hi, and welcome back to Dan
• 0:43
  Parenting. I'm your host Eva, and today I
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  am doing something a little different.
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  I'm taking the fascinating Dutch investigation TV show called
• 0:51
  Kurtenstein Spambada. Apologies if that's not right,
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  but I'm translating it into English and I'm breaking it down
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  in a way that actually might make your next supermarket shop
• 1:01
  feel a little less confusing. So today's topic is about the
• 1:04
  Nutriscore. This was actually published last
• 1:07
  week on April 10th I think it was.
• 1:09
  You know, it's about those little coloured ladders on the
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  front of all your food packets, A to E green to red.
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  They're supposed to help us make quick, healthier choices.
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  I just said on all food packets, but it's not.
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  When I first started introducing solids and moving into the
• 1:23
  toddler snack phase, I found those labels strangely
• 1:26
  reassuring. A was good, B was all right.
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  You know C&D and EI mean no, I mean I can make a better choice.
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  So in this show they started comparing these products and
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  honestly, it got weird fast. They had the same paprika chips,
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  a small bag was AC, the large bag was AB Same flavour, same
• 1:45
  ingredients, same brand and yet a different letter.
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  They also took salted peanuts. I mean, how can you get a
• 1:52
  different kind of peanut, right? But they scored differently
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  depending on which supermarket they came from.
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  There was an AAB and AC. They looked a frozen cream
• 2:01
  spinach from the same brand on the same shelf with the same
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  packaging, but it had two different scores sitting side by
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  side. They had a food scientist in the
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  supermarket as they shopped around.
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  He was visibly confused. So this is where the story can
• 2:19
  get good. The team travelled to Paris to
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  speak to one of the Co creators of the Nutrascore system.
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  And this is the bit that suddenly can click.
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  Nutrascore was first officially introduced to France in 2017 and
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  then gradually spread across countries like Belgium, Germany,
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  Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
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  And this is a really important part.
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  It is not mandatory. Brands and supermarkets can
• 2:44
  choose whether or not to use it, and the voluntary nature is
• 2:47
  exactly where the cracks start to show.
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  The Co creator explained that the Nutriscore was never
• 2:54
  designed to compare foods across different shelves, it was only
• 2:58
  meant to compare products within the same category.
• 3:02
  I mean I don't know about you but as a parent I don't know
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  what category is what. If it's on the same shelf then
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  maybe yes I can understand it. But how am I meant to know what
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  category they can sit in? So AB on crisps simply means
• 3:14
  this is one of the better crisp options.
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  It doesn't mean that crisps are suddenly a healthy snack.
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  And This is why it can feel so confusing as parents, because we
• 3:23
  can compare across the shelves at any stage.
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  I mean, we've got crackers or fruit bars, breadsticks to rice
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  cakes, yoghurt melts to dried fruit pouches to banana slices.
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  I mean, a snack is a snack. It just comes in different
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  forms. And that's how real life family
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  shopping actually works. So the show took a step further.
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  It then went into the algorithm. Yeah, there's an algorithm for
• 3:48
  this too. So the algorithm only sees
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  nutrients, sugar, salt, saturated fat, fibre and
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  protein. It doesn't actually understand
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  how processed a food really is, which means manufacturers can
• 4:02
  learn how to optimise the formula.
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  The show demonstrated how a brownie could be reformulated to
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  score an A. They swapped the sugar for
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  sweeteners. They boosted fibre with sugary
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  root inulin, they adjusted the flour to be whole wheat and they
• 4:16
  added apple puree and suddenly that score was a It was
• 4:20
  brilliant. I mean the food itself though,
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  well, it was highly engineered and probably not as tasty as a
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  real proper brownie. And because the creators know
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  that this is becoming a bigger issue, there is already
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  discussion about adding a black border around the Nutriscore
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  logo just to flag ultra processed foods.
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  So even if something scores really well nutritionally, you
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  can still visually see that there's a warning that it has
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  been heavily reformulated. And honestly that would be
• 4:47
  incredibly helpful, but we're not there yet.
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  That black label distinction that has been proposed, well,
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  it's not been rolled out. So for now, a highly processed
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  product can still carry the lovely green A or B, but with no
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  clear signal that the score has been strategically optimised.
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  And this is the part that honestly made me pause as a
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  parent. Because most of us do not have
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  that luxury of making every cracker or pouch or breadstick
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  or toddler snack from scratch. We are shopping between naps and
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  nursery pickups, work deadlines, dinner, and trying to get
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  everyone fed before someone melts down.
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  Sometimes the toddler, sometimes us.
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  So we are, whether we realize it or not, passively relying on
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  food brands to be honest with us.
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  We trust the colours, we trust the wording and we trust that if
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  something carries a bright green, a someone, somewhere has
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  made sure that that means something real to us.
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  But sometimes honesty is not the thing that makes the
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  conglomerate the money it would like.
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  And this is where we are in 2026.
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  In 2023 they implemented A stricter algorithm which is now
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  pushing some previously healthy looking products into worse
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  scores. And now in 2026 the change
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  should have happened as they were given two years to adapt
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  and change with their markings on all their products.
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  But some of those brands are now doing the easiest thing
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  possible. They simply remove the
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  Nutriscore altogether, then showing that they got down
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  degraded. And because the system is
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  voluntary, that is entirely allowed.
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  So if the latter helps sales, it stays, but if it hurts, it
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  quietly disappears. That's also part of why food
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  lobbying across Europe has worked so hard to keep a system
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  like this from becoming mandatory EU wide.
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  Because the moment high sugar or heavily ultra processed foods
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  are forced to show their letters, the shelf starts
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  telling a much more honest story.
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  This episode also revisited a previous investigation that I
• 6:53
  thought was such a perfect example of how it works behind
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  the scenes. They went back to a pizza
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  research and development team that they had filmed before, and
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  this team there openly showed how a salami pizza that would
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  normally sit in an E could be pushed all the way up to AB.
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  How they added fibre to the dough, they enrich the tomato
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  paste, they reduce the fat on the salami.
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  So tweaking the recipe just enough to make the score better
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  on paper. And yes, technically the letter
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  does improve, but that does not necessarily make it the kind of
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  dinner most of us emotionally imagine when we think.
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  Now, this is generally healthier food, so if you are in the thick
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  of a daily food choice struggle right now, it is worth
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  remembering. The Nutri score can be helpful,
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  but it is not always as easy as our ABC's.
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  The letters can guide you, but they do not tell a whole story.
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  And because parenting in real life is not happening in the
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  perfect kitchen with endless time to soak chickpeas and bake
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  oat crackers from scratch, sometimes dinner is freezer
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  pizza. Sometimes the snack pouch.
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  It just gets thrown in the buggy basket because you just need to
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  get out the door. And sometimes the only win is
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  choosing the slightly better option from what is
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  realistically available. And that is exactly why food
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  brands owe families honesty. Not perfection, not guilt, just
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  honesty. A clear label, a truthful
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  ingredients list and enough transparency that exhausted
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  parents are not being asked to decode a marketing strategy
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  while buying our Tuesday snack. So if this kind of episode helps
• 8:32
  these kind of deep dives into the Dutch supermarket systems or
• 8:35
  the products they have, hit me up.
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  I'm always happy to revisit the curtains scenes from Vada if
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  they have it available. I'll sit through it, I'll
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  translate it, and I'll make it into a podcast episode for you.
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  We all need a little bit of help here trying to navigate the
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  Dutch system, whatever system that might be, even if it's just
• 8:52
  the system of shopping. So I hope you enjoyed this one
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  and I'll speak to you next week.