A new paper has been published in Foods, September 16th, 2021. This is a substantial piece of work contributing to answer some criticisms made by olive oil producers (and few scientists) concerning the current classification of olive oil by Nutri-Score. They consider that ranking Nutri-Score C is not in line with its nutritional quality and could have a negative impact on the sales and consumption of olive oil, especially compared to other added fats with lower nutritional qualities.
This published study was performed in 486 Spanish consumers. The main results are:
– Almost 80% of participants declared that Nutri-Score was useful for recognizing the differences in nutritional quality between the eight added fats presented in the study;
– 89.1% rightly identified that olive oil was among the added fats with the best nutritional quality (vs. 4.1% for rapeseed oil (Nutri-Score C), and less than 3% for other added fats (Nutri-Score D or E)).
– When asked about which added fat they would buy more frequently, 86.2% of participants selected olive oil.
– Then, after being reminded that among added fats, the Nutri-Score C given to olive oil was the best grade, a majority of participants declared that they would keep consuming olive oil as much as before (71.4%).
– Finally, almost 78% of participants thought that Nutri-Score should be displayed on olive oil.
In conclusion, the results of our study suggest that displaying Nutri-Score on olive oil was well accepted and understood by a large majority of participants who appeared to accept the current ranking of the Nutri-Score for olive oil (Nutri-Score C).
The full text is available on the website: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/9/2209/htm
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