Single-score nutrition labels compress complex product information into a single metric, enabling quick consumer comparison but eliminating the compositional, sourcing, and practice-level detail that distinguishes products within the same category. This paper examines the structural limitations of score-based nutrition labelling systems and identifies where producer-level product information is lost in the compression. The analysis considers Nutri-Score, Health Star Rating, and comparable systems across jurisdictions. The paper argues that compression-based labelling serves a regulatory function but does not constitute product-level disclosure.
Shams Ahmed (Sun,) studied this question.