The European debate on Front-of-Pack Labels. Public Health, Food Culture, and the Politics of Nutritional Information

Since the mid-twentieth century, global agri-food systems have been increasingly shaped by what McMichael defines as the corporate food regime, characterised by the commodification of food and the growing distance between production and consumption. In this context, nutritional labelling has emerged as a key policy instrument to address rising rates of overweight and obesity across Europe. This article argues that Front-of-Pack Labels (FoPLs) are not neutral technical devices based on universal nutritional science, but politically and culturally situated instruments of public action. Focusing on the controversy between France’s Nutri-Score and Italy’s NutrInform Battery, the article analyses how competing food cultures, economic interests, and epistemological assumptions about health shape national positions on food labelling. Drawing on food regime theory and the sociology of public policy instruments, the paper shows that the Italian resistance to Nutri-Score reflects broader concerns about the symbolic, territorial, and economic value of traditional foods, rather than purely technical disagreements over nutritional communication. The European debate on FoPLs thus reveals the inherently political nature of nutritional information and highlights the limits of standardised labelling as a standalone solution for promoting healthy and sustainable diets.