ABSTRACT Overnutrition is a major public health concern, and front‐of‐pack labels (FOPLs) have been introduced to support healthier food choices. Within the European Union, the coexistence of multiple voluntary schemes across Member States has fuelled the policy debate on a harmonized mandatory FOPL. In this context, Nutri‐Score (NS) is among the most extensively studied interpretive labels, yet evidence remains limited on how it affects meal composition and cross‐category substitution. We investigate these issues through an online within‐subject experiment with 202 Italian consumers, who completed a menu‐planning task first without (R1) and then with NS information (R2). The display of NS shifted choices toward healthier options, with the strongest effects at the extremes of the scale: selections of NS D products decreased substantially in the Proteins and Fats macro‐category (−20.8%), whereas NS A choices increased (+17.3%). Beyond product‐level shifts, NS altered meal composition strategies, increasing the frequency of “healthy–healthy” combinations and reducing “healthy–unhealthy” pairings. Improvements were often achieved through category switching rather than within‐category substitutions, particularly in Proteins and Fats, where consumers reduced cheese choices (−9.0%) and increased plant‐based alternatives (+10.4%). These findings confirm NS effectiveness in guiding healthier choices in a meal‐planning context, while highlighting potential side effects of simplified ratings and limited within‐category variability, including category avoidance with implications for dietary diversity and affected sectors.
Stiletto et al. (2026) studied this question.