Health Ministry launches packaged food nutrition score

ANKARA

Türkiye’s Health Ministry has launched an online “Nutrition Score” digital tool to simplify reading complex labels on packaged foods and help consumers make healthier choices.

The Public Health General Directorate’s Healthy Nutrition and Active Life Department introduced the calculator on its website. Users enter nutritional values listed per 100 grams or 100 milliliters, including fat, protein, starch-based sugars and sweeteners.

Evaluating both positive and negative nutrients, the system categorizes product quality across five levels ranging from “excellent” to “insufficient.”

Officials expect the application to relieve consumers from manually assessing nutritional balance while checking ingredients, portion sizes, expiration dates and storage conditions. Though similar weight-loss systems exist in the market, the state-run application aims to spread healthy food awareness to wider audiences.

Obesity and diet-related chronic diseases remain a major public health concern in Türkiye, where authorities often implement regulations on food labeling to increase transparency, protect consumer rights and combat misinformation in the rapidly growing packaged food industry. Health officials frequently urge citizens to adopt active lifestyles and monitor their daily caloric intake to prevent long-term medical complications. This new system represents another step in this ongoing national campaign against unhealthy dietary patterns.