News 16.01.2026

New Nutri-Score: How Nesquik, Dr. Oetker Pizza and Yfood perform

Traffic light labels

The food traffic-light label has been updated – and now rates popular products much more strictly. With one exception.

A new Nutri-Score has applied to many foods in supermarkets since January 2026. Many baked goods, ready meals and some beverages are now rated more strictly. foodwatch has carried out a Nutri-Score check using popular products.

The green traffic light for Nestlé’s sugary cocoa powder had irritated many consumers. Now, due to the stricter assessment of sugary milk-based drinks, Nesquik receives an orange score. What remains unchanged is that the Nutri-Score is not calculated for the powder itself, but for the prepared drink in combination with low-fat milk.

Salt and sugar are rated more strictly under the new Nutri-Score. Proteins and dietary fiber also only have a positive impact from higher amounts onward. As a result, many ready-made meals such as pizzas now fall into the yellow-to-red range.

No calories, no sugar: this formula had previously meant that drinks sweetened with artificial sweeteners received a light-green B. Now, sweeteners lead to a point deduction, resulting in only a yellow C for diet cola. Only water is still allowed to display a dark-green A.

There are also winners under the new algorithm: the traffic light for olive oil is now light green. The Nutri-Score differentiates oils more strongly based on their proportion of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. As a result, health-promoting olive oil now receives a B, while butter, for example, still gets an E.

The stricter assessment of sugar and salt content causes the traffic light for cornflakes to shift from green to orange. Dietary fiber and protein now have to be present in higher amounts in order to have a positive impact on the score.

Fatty and salty: the chips now receive a D instead of a C, mainly due to their high salt content.

To better distinguish white bread from wholegrain bread, the calculation of dietary fiber content has been changed. For fiber to count positively, a higher amount of these valuable nutrients is now required. As a result, buttered toast bread drops from a B to a C.

The relatively high sugar content of 12 percent now weighs more heavily for this yogurt than its protein content. As a result, it receives only a yellow C instead of a B.

With more than 11 percent sugar, this crunchy muesli contains quite a lot of sugar, as well as a fairly high amount of salt. Even its relatively high fiber and protein content cannot save the green traffic light. Instead, the “reduced-sugar” granola muesli now receives only a C.

The most dramatic drop, from dark green to red, is seen with the drinkable meal Yfood. Yfood falls from an A to an E because, with the update, everything that is consumed as a drink is now classified as a beverage. Milk-based drinks were previously considered foods. The algorithm for beverages is stricter.

Only if everyone—from junk food manufacturers to organic producers—has to show their colors can products be compared at a glance when shopping, which is the whole point of the consumer-friendly food traffic light.
Suzy Sumner Head of the foodwatch Brussels Office

foodwatch welcomes the Nutri-Score update. The only weak point: the consumer-friendly traffic-light label is still voluntary. Junk food manufacturers can therefore avoid using the label. In foodwatch’s market check, not all products were labelled with the Nutri-Score either.

Developed by scientists – not by industry

The revised algorithm used to calculate the traffic-light label has been in force since January. However, remaining stocks of old packaging may still be sold, meaning that products with outdated scores may still be found in shops for a short time. The new algorithm was developed by the Nutri-Score’s scientific committee. It is made up of independent scientists from all countries that use the Nutri-Score. Their task is to check whether the Nutri-Score is fulfilling its purpose and to incorporate new scientific findings.