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Lactalis’s challenge to NutriScore heads to EU court

EU’s top court has two years to decide if France’s revised NutriScore breaches EU law, following a legal challenge by Lactalis that it unfairly penalises minimally processed foods.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will decide whether France’s revised Nutri-Score labelling breaches EU law, after the French Council of State referred a challenge brought by dairy group Lactalis in June 2026.

At a glance:

• The EU’s top court will rule whether France’s revised NutriScore breaches EU law, after a June 2026 referral.
• The 2023 updated algorithm reclassified milk, drinkable yoghurts, and flavoured milk drinks as beverages, not foods.
• Lactalis’s core objection to NutriScore’s algorithm is that it rewards reformulated recipes over minimally processed dairy.

A ruling is expected within 18 months to two years – a window that the European consumer organisation, BEUC, warns could stall the very product reformulation the NutriScore scheme was designed to encourage.

The referral asks the CJEU to interpret whether the updated scoring of the scheme conforms with the EU rules on food information to consumers, Article 35(2) of Regulation 1169/2011.

The legal challenge itself is a dispute over classification and presentation and not a direct attack on the label’s public health rationale.

NutriScore: Why dairy was downgraded in 2023

In 2023, NutriScore’s scientific committee updated the algorithm, reclassifying milk, drinkable yoghurts, and flavoured milk drinks as beverages not foods, and thus scoring them against stricter drinks criteria. Skimmed and semi-skimmed cow's milk is now capped at B – meaning it cannot be scored A – and whole milk, due to its saturated fat content, is capped at C. In response some brands, including Danone, removed NutriScore from its products.

This updated algorithm, applied in France from March 2025, is what Lactalis, the French multinational dairy corporation, is challenging and seeks to annul.

Lactalis argues NutriScore rewards highly processed recipes

A spokesperson for Lactalis told Ingredients Network the scheme applied “an excessive level of simplification, with a reductive, synthetic display that does not take consumption portions into account”.

“Moreover, it is important to take into account the portion size typically consumed of the product in question, in order to assess its real nutritional impact (in light of consumption habits), without misleading the consumer. In this regard, the usual portion of cheese consumed is 30 grams, and only a few grams when it comes to butter,” the spokesperson added.

The company’s central objection to the updated algorithm is that it favours those manufacturers that are able to adjust formulations over those that make minimally processed products.

“The way NutriScore functions leads to better ratings for highly processed foods, whose recipes can be adjusted to achieve a better score, to the detriment of simpler, more traditional, and authentic products and ingredients,” the spokesperson said, adding that around 90% of cheeses remain classified D or E.

BEUC: Lactalis legalchallenge is not proof of NutriScore flaw

BEUC rejects the argument that the case exposes a defect in the scoring.

“We do not see this legal challenge as evidence that the scoring is flawed,” Samuele Tonello, senior food policy officer at BEUC, told Ingredients Network. “Consumers benefit when labels distinguish products with high added sugar or salt from genuinely healthier options, regardless of category.

“The 2023 algorithm revision was a science-based update designed to better reflect nutritional quality,” Tonello explained, adding that a ruling against the French decree “would likely force a narrower technical fix to how NutriScore is implemented, rather than ending the scheme”.

The greater risk, in BEUC's view, is around reformulation.

“Prolonged legal uncertainty could slow reformulation efforts by reducing incentives for companies to chase a better score and improve products,” he said. “Regulatory clarity, ideally through an EU-wide framework, would help maintain progress.”

Where does NutriScore currently stand?

Seven countries have adopted NutriScore label voluntarily: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland.

In November 2025, French lawmakers tried to go further, backing an amendment to the 2026 social security budget that would have made display mandatory, with exemptions for products carrying protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), or organic certification.

The Senate rejected the move, and the mandatory provision was dropped from the final budget in December 2025, leaving the label voluntary in France.

Public health bodies including the European Heart Network and United European Gastroenterology, alongside consumer groups BEUC and Foodwatch, back a mandatory EU-wide rollout, citing more than 100 peer-reviewed studies on the label’s effect on shopping choices.

Much of the opposition to NutriScore has come from Italy, which promotes its own NutrInform Battery system and objects to the way the label scores traditional products such as extra virgin olive oil and Parmigiano.

Plans for a single mandatory EU-wide label have also stalled. The European Commission promised one in 2020 under its Farm to Fork strategy; however, the proposal was later dropped without public explanation, prompting Foodwatch to take legal action for access to the Commission's internal documents.