Nutri-Score 2023: What Changed in the Calculation

Two votes, one year apart

The revision didn't happen all at once. The Nutri-Score scientific committee, which brings together representatives from France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, voted on two separate reports:

• June 29, 2022 — approved July 26, 2022: new scale for solid foods, fats/oils/nuts/seeds, and a special case for red meat.
• February 1, 2023 — a report dedicated to beverages, using an algorithm different from solid foods.

These two scientific reports form the basis enacted into French law by the decree of March 14, 2025 (Journal Officiel). According to Santé publique France, companies have a two-year window after the coordinated rollout to update their packaging — so the old and new scales coexist on shelves during the transition.

Solid foods: same 4 unfavorable criteria, tighter thresholds

For most products (excluding fats and beverages), the calculation still relies on 4 unfavorable criteria — energy, sugars, saturated fat, salt — and 3 favorable ones — protein, fiber, share of fruit/vegetables/legumes. What changed: the point thresholds are tightened across several tiers, penalizing sugar and salt more heavily at equal quantities compared to the old calculation.

The change that matters most: a protein cap for red meat

For red meat (beef, veal, pork, lamb, game, horse, goat, camel, kangaroo), protein points are now capped at 2 points, down from 7. The rationale: red meat iron is largely heme iron (roughly 75%, per the scientific committee's report), which justified no longer letting the "protein" score offset other criteria as much.

Fats, oils, nuts, and seeds: a category of their own

This is the most structural change. Previously, coconut oil and rapeseed oil were judged on the same total-energy scale as any food. Since the revision, this category (oils, margarines, butter, cream, nuts, seeds) is assessed on a specific criterion: energy from saturated fat (saturated fat in g/100g × 37), rather than total energy.

In practice, this better distinguishes an oil rich in unsaturated fat (olive, rapeseed) from one rich in saturated fat (coconut, palm), even when both have similar calorie density. Another quirk of this category: the protein cap is set at 7 points (not 2), to differentiate plain nuts from salted or sweetened ones.

Beverages: the change that surprises people most

Beverages have always had their own algorithm, but two new elements from the February 2023 report change the picture:

• Non-nutritive sweeteners are now penalized — the presence of a regulated sweetener from the official list (E950, E951, E952, E954, E955, E957, E959, E960a, E961, E962, E969) in the ingredient list automatically adds 4 unfavorable points, regardless of quantity. A "zero sugar" sweetened drink is no longer scored the same as water.
• The starting sugar threshold is lower, set at 0.5g/100mL, aligned with the regulatory threshold for "sugar-free" claims, versus a higher starting point before.

According to mangerbouger.fr, these two elements in particular are why certain "diet" drinks lose letter grades under the new calculation, while whole-grain starches high in fiber and some fatty fish gain them.

The new classification thresholds, category by category

Solid foods

Fats / oils / nuts / seeds

Beverages

These three scales don't read the same way across categories: the same point total doesn't correspond to the same grade for a solid food, a fat/oil, or a beverage.

One last detail that changes fruit/vegetable scoring

For solid foods, the fruit/vegetable/legume share can now earn up to 10 favorable points. For beverages, this component is capped at 6 points — a deliberate calibration by the scientific committee to avoid shifting pure fruit juice's classification relative to the old system. Another nuance: nuts and oils no longer count toward this component for regular solid foods (they have their own category), except for qualifying oils (olive, avocado) within the fats category.

Radish already applies the new calculation

The new scale isn't just a regulatory curiosity — it's what determines the letter grade you see on every product. In Radish, the Nutri-Score shown on each food item is calculated using this revised (2022-2023) scale, based on official nutritional data (CIQUAL/USDA) — not the old 2017 formula. To our knowledge, most consumer calorie-tracking apps haven't publicly communicated a migration to this new scale: without checking product by product, there's no way to know which version of the calculation they actually use.

General information, not medical or legal advice. Accurate as of July 27, 2026.

General information, not medical or legal advice.

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