Italy will challenge Nutri-Score with the constitution

The Italian government is proposing an amendment to its constitution that would prevent the introduction of the EU-backed Nutri-Score system in the Mediterranean state, Euronews can reveal.

Italy has long been skeptical of the Nutri-Score scale, which converts the nutritional value of food into a scaled code ranging from A to E, from green to red as an indicator of health benefits. A key objection is that Nutri-Score is biased against Italian staples, such as extra virgin olive oil, which is D-rated and orange in color.

During a European election rally held last week, Italy’s Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, a member of the ruling Fratelli d’Italia, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s brother-in-law, announced a proposal to amend the constitution by adding the right to healthy food to the existing protections they enjoy. Italian citizens

“The Republic guarantees the healthy nutrition of its citizens. To this end, it pursues the principle of food sovereignty and protects products that symbolize national identity,” says the amendment.

A spokesman for the agriculture ministry told Euronews that the procedure to amend the constitution had already started in Italy’s lower parliamentary house, the Chamber of Deputies, by MP Tommaso Foti, and that a similar procedure would begin in upper house of parliament shortly.

The amendment would have to be voted on twice by both chambers, and simple majority approval would pave the way for a referendum to confirm or reject it.

This rule change would challenge the prospects of introducing Nutri-Score in Italy, as the health benefits of Italian food would be effectively affirmed by the constitution.

The Nutri-Score system is currently being tested in supermarket aisles in six EU member states, and has been widely endorsed by the EU executive, which has been tasked with proposing a harmonized food labeling scheme across the block.

In recent years, Italy has organized several initiatives in Brussels designed to counter the Nutri-Score system and has launched diplomatic efforts to find allies with other EU countries against Nutri-Score.

These have managed to slow the progress of the Commission’s proposal, which was initially planned for publication at the end of 2022, but has been delayed due to its division.

Instead, the Italian government has endorsed the NutrInform Battery food labeling system, a system that provides nutritional information about the foods and drinks consumed, highlighting the portions recommended by nutritionists and the relative contribution of calories, salt, sugars and fats in your diet.

Last week, a scientific symposium on Nutri-Score organized by Belgium, which currently holds the EU Council presidency, and with an opening speech by Queen Mathilde of the Belgians, was seen as an attempt to put the problem of the front labeling of the container in the EU. schedule

Event organizers told Euronews that Italian representatives were invited and had confirmed a speaker, but later pulled out because the event clashed with a public holiday in Italy.

The issue of the food score could be played out among other political issues in the period before and after the EU elections, especially if Commission President Ursula von der Leyen asks for the support of Giorgia Meloni in her candidacy to re-elect something she has left open as president. option in their recent debate.

There is interest on von der Leyen’s part in reaching a deal with the Italian government at this point, said Lorenzo Castellani, professor of the history of political institutions at the Luiss University in Rome.

The expert told Euronews that the perspectives of Melonis and von der Leyens have been converging on issues such as migration, adding that the Italian prime minister could have greater negotiating power in the coming months until the new commission