Turkey Launches Nutrition Score Tool for Packaged Foods

Turkey Launches Nutrition Score Tool for Packaged Foods

Türkiye’s Ministry of Health has launched a new online Nutrition Score tool designed to make it easier for consumers to understand the nutritional quality of packaged foods.

The system, developed by the Healthy Nutrition and Active Lifestyle Department of the General Directorate of Public Health, allows consumers to enter nutritional information from a product label and receive an overall nutrition score. The tool is intended to make comparing packaged foods easier and encourage more informed food choices.

How Does Turkey’s Nutrition Score Work?

The calculator uses nutritional information provided on food packaging, generally based on 100 grams or 100 millilitres of the product.

The assessment looks at both positive and negative nutritional characteristics. Energy, sugar, saturated fat and salt contribute negatively to the score, while fibre, protein and the proportion of fruit, vegetables and pulses can contribute positively. Different calculation categories are used for products such as solid foods, beverages, oils and nuts, and red meat.

The result is presented using a five-level A-to-E scale. Products with a more favourable nutritional profile receive a higher rating, while products with less favourable nutritional characteristics receive a lower one.

The Nutrition Score is designed to compare the nutritional profile of products. An A rating does not mean that a product can be consumed without limits, while an E rating does not mean that the product is unsafe or prohibited.

Ingredients Can Also Affect the Result

The Turkish system goes beyond the basic nutritional table. Information from the ingredients list can also influence the assessment.

According to detailed reporting on the system, the calculator can take certain sweeteners into account, including aspartame, sucralose, stevia, acesulfame, saccharin and sugar alcohols. The presence of certain starch-based sugars, such as glucose syrup, fructose syrup or high-fructose corn syrup, can also negatively affect the result.

Some food colourings are also taken into account. The reported system identifies substances such as Tartrazine (E102), Quinoline Yellow (E104), Sunset Yellow (E110), Carmoisine (E122), Ponceau 4R (E124) and Allura Red (E129), with their presence potentially lowering the product’s classification by one level.

Why Has Türkiye Introduced the Tool?

Nutrition information on packaged foods can be difficult to interpret. Consumers may need to compare several numbers, serving sizes and ingredients before deciding which product has the more favourable nutritional profile.

The new calculator is intended to simplify this process by bringing different nutritional factors together into one overall result. Instead of analysing every nutritional value separately, consumers can use the score as an additional tool when comparing products within the same category.

The Ministry’s broader public-health approach also emphasises the importance of reading food labels, checking ingredient lists and paying attention to serving sizes, expiry dates and storage conditions. The Nutrition Score is therefore intended to complement, rather than replace, careful label reading.

What Do the A and E Ratings Mean?

The A-to-E system is primarily a way of communicating a product’s nutritional profile.

• A — a more favourable nutritional profile within the relevant product category.
• B — generally favourable nutritional characteristics.
• C — an intermediate nutritional profile.
• D — a less favourable nutritional profile.
• E — the least favourable nutritional profile within the scale.

The rating should not be interpreted as a simple distinction between “healthy” and “unhealthy” food. The purpose is to make nutritional differences easier to see, particularly when comparing similar products.

Will Nutrition Scores Appear on Food Packaging?

The launch of the online calculator is an important first step, but the future use of the A-to-E system directly on packaged-food labels is a separate issue.

Detailed reporting indicates that Türkiye is working toward the use of Nutrition Scores on the front of packaged food products, with an eventual mandatory system and a transition period for producers being discussed. However, the exact start date and transition timetable had not been finalised in the information available at the time of publication.

What Does the New Tool Mean for Consumers?

For shoppers in Türkiye, the new system could make it easier to compare everyday products such as breakfast cereals, yoghurt, ready meals and other packaged foods.

For example, when two similar products have different levels of sugar, salt, saturated fat, fibre or protein, the Nutrition Score can provide an additional quick comparison alongside the full nutritional table and ingredients list.

The score should be used as a comparison tool, not as medical or dietary advice.

How to Use the Nutrition Score

Consumers can use the online calculator by checking the nutritional information on a packaged product and entering the required values into the system.

For the most useful comparison, it is important to use the information exactly as it appears on the product label and to compare products from the same or similar categories.

The Ministry’s new initiative reflects Türkiye’s wider efforts to improve nutrition awareness and help consumers make more informed choices when buying packaged foods.

A New Tool for More Informed Food Choices

Türkiye’s Nutrition Score gives consumers a simpler way to interpret complex food-label information. By combining several positive and negative nutritional factors into an A-to-E rating, the system can make product comparisons faster and easier.

At the same time, the rating does not replace the information on the package. Ingredients, serving size, expiry date, storage conditions and the complete nutritional table remain important when choosing food products.