August 2024

IZA Policy Paper No. 213: Biased Voluntary Nutri-Score Labeling

Wendelin Schnedler, Antonia Vigano

Food labels are supposed to quickly inform consumers about the nutritional values of products. We provide evidence that in a system where labels are voluntary, they are systematically distorted. The probability of finding a label on a product of the category with the highest nutritional value is 51 percentage points larger than in the lowest category.