The tick logo, known in Dutch as the 'vinkje', was the result of an industry-led initiative created by the Choices Foundation.

Privately funded through the fees companies paid in order to become a member, it had the official backing of the Dutch government and the European Commission.

It is used by Unilever, Friesland Campina, Weetabix, German discounter Lidl and Dutch private label brand Albert Heijn, among others.

However it had attracted mounting criticism as consumers found it confusing, and in May this year Dutch consumer rights group Consumentenbond filed a legal complaint to the Ministry of Health. The Ministry's legal advisory committee concluded the logo was poorly understood by consumers and therefore unlawful. 

"It was our campaign ‘Weg met het Vinkje’ (loosely translated as ‘Let’s get rid of the Tick’) that let to the decision to remove the logo from packaging," spokesperson at Consumentenbond Babs van der Staak told us. "The decision of the Minister came on the day the deadline for answering to our legal complaint expired." 

"We are very happy the Choices logo is now forbidden in the Netherlands. We opposed the healthy eating logo, because we did research among consumers and found that consumers do not know where the logo stood for and the difference between blue and green logo was not clear for consumers.

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Food Labelling Services comments:

Any logo has to have a clear meaning to consumers and be properly understood for it to be effective. However, having an app that scans barcodes to compare the nutrition content firstly assumes that everyone has use of a phone. In addition, the time spend chosing a product is minimal in the aisle, therefore will the consumer make the effort to scan a barcode for information?