The makers of Roquefort, one of France’s signature blue-veined cheeses, are crying foul over a nutrition-labeling scheme that makes their product seem unhealthy and without nutritional value.
Nutriscore, which started as a voluntary nutrition labeling system in France, has come into wide use across Europe. The French government is considering making it a mandatory labeling item. The system is heavily weighted against sugar, salt and fats, the last two of which play a prominent role in blue cheeses.
The Roquefort Confederation, which represents the producers who make the cheese in the Aveyron region—to be labeled Roquefort at all it must be aged in the local caves—are demanding an exemption from the A through E rankings for a range of traditional products; similar requests have come from other cheese regions. Most of the cheeses got a D or E rating.
The head of the group, Sebastien Vignette, told a press conference Monday that “It’s paradoxical. There are ultra-processed industrial products with preservatives in them that can get an A or B, but our local and very natural products are stigmatized.” And, he added, there “isn’t a problem of excessive consumption of cheese in France.” At least not from his point of view…
