Elior initiates the roll out of the Nutri-Score in school canteens on the occasion of the 2020 back-to-school. Following trials in contract catering in enterprises in fall 2019 – a first in the industry – Elior has decided to accelerate and gradually introduce the Nutri-Score in all its school cafeterias, starting from September 2020. The system will first be rolled out in secondary schools and third-level colleges and gradually broadened in all school cafeterias operated by Elior.

The Group’s ambition has always been to ensure school children and students a healthy and balanced nutrition. Following the back-to-school characterized by the adaptation of our offers in response to the public health crisis, Elior commits to offer students a choice of meals that guarantee a varied, well-balanced and tasty nutrition. By adopting the Nutri-Score label, Elior is the first contract caterer in the industry to go this far in the accompaniment, the education and in raising awareness to the nutritional value of recipes, by bringing transparent and readable additional information to children and their parents.

Nutri-Score was shaped in 2014 by the research team of Serge Hercberg, professor and chairman of PNNS (the French national nutrition and health programme) and is managed by Santé Public France, (the French national health agency). The Nutri-Score meets a strong expectation of consumers helping them to choose foods with the best nutritional quality through a simple, readable and understandable information.

Nutri-score has already been rolled out by more than 350 brands, notably in mass distribution, and is progressively being deployed by Elior in its company canteens’ activity since 2019.

Elior was the first to roll out the Nutri-Score system in contract catering. Since November 2019, company employees have the possibility to be accompanied with their nutrition choices thanks to a transparent nutrition information. Starting from this back-to-school, students and their parents will also have the possibility to know the nutritional quality of the proposed recipes in our school cafeterias. Facing the health situation we all know and the dietary inequalities that it can sometimes deepen, our responsibility as a social caterer is more than ever to guarantee that all children are provided with a healthy and well-balanced nutrition. This is why I wanted to accelerate the deployment of Nutri-Score into all our school canteens. With this willingness to inform children and their parents about the nutritional value of dishes proposed, Elior confirms its pioneering role in providing education with a healthy and tasty nutrition.

— Philippe Guillemot, Elior Group CEO

This innovation in line with the Group’s strong commitments must benefit three main goals:

  • Providing ever-greater transparency on the nutritional quality of menus served to our children.
  • Informing young people and their parents about the nutritional value of consumed meals in school cafeterias to allow them to manage their nutritional balance across several meals.
  • Showing that the adaptation of menus due to the actual sanitary context is not done at the expense of the quality and health.

From this back-to-school 2020, Nutri-Score will already appear in few pilot schools, before being rolled out in all school canteens operated by Elior in France over the course of the school year. This gradual roll-out will allow to adapt the Nutri-Score system to children’s menus in relation with all stakeholders: students, parents, school managers and public authorities.

The implementation will be done through a proximity advertising campaign in secondary school canteens; accompanied with an information display reminding young people how important it is to have a varied nutrition that combines nutritional needs and pleasure. An additional information display will be done outside school buildings for parents, and as of January, this information will also be available to families on the Elior mobile app.