Science vs Ideology: Beyond Nutriscore – LIVE STREAMING

On Tuesday, November 16th, Competere hosted an expert panel to discuss the science (or lack thereof) behind Nutriscore and other front-of-pack nutritional lables. Prof. Ramon Estruch of the University of Barcelona and Prof. Francesco Visioli of the University of Padova illustrated different labelling schemes to identify, through the scientific method, the most suitable solution for consumers’ freedom of choice. Here are a few takeaways:

• The algorithm used by NutriScore is arbitrary and can be easily manipulated, generating the paradox that healthy foods such as those part of the Mediterranean Diet would turn out to be harmful.
• The nutrients contained in foods are evaluated in an arbitrary manner, leading companies to modify ingredients in order to obtain higher scores and favoring highly processed foods.
• The proposed distinction between positive and negative foods goes against the scientific literature, leaving out the impact of the nutrient within the overall diet.

Read the press release

Watch the recording

Clips from the debate

Dr. Ramon Estruch on the criteria of a science-back label

Dr. Francesco Visioli on the future of personalized diets

Download the flyer

SPEAKER BIO

Ramon Estruch is Senior Consultant at the Internal Medicine Department of the Hospital Clinic (Barcelona) since 2002. He is also Associate Professor at the Barcelona University since 1996, Member of the Board of Directors of the CIBER Obesity and Nutrition, Institute of Health “Carlos III”, Government of Spain.

Francesco Visioli is professor in Human Nutrition at the Departement of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova. Up until 2014 he was Chief Scientist at Imdea (Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados). From 1996 to 2010 he was professor of Physiopathology at Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris).

Pietro Paganini is the President and co-founder of Competere – Policies for Sustainable Development – and General Director at Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, the research center that promotes the study of Liberalism and Liberal thought. He serves as Adjunct Professor at John Cabot University and Temple University of Philadelphia and as Researcher and Visiting Lecturer at Karlstad University (Sweden). He served as Vice President and political officer for the European Liberal Youth. He is the Founder and Board Member of Istituto Italiano per la Privacy (IIP) and the European Privacy Association (EPA).