Front-of-package nutrition labelling in Latin America: review of the cases of Chile and Peru (Open Access)

Abstract:

In Latin American countries, economic growth has been reflected in a generalized change of eating patterns, transforming in a few decades from high rates of under-nutrition to frequent obesity problems in the population. This overweight crisis raises the propensity of suffering important health issues, especially non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and coronary diseases. Changes in food labelling regulations, with the aim of giving the consumer more information, have been part of the proposed strategy to fight against this overweight problem. The objective of this paper is to present Chilean Law 20606 and Peruvian Law 30021 and accompanying regulation, in effect since 2016 and 2019 respectively. Both countries are the earliest worldwide to mandate front-of-package food labeling to those foods which exceed thresholds of the so-called “critical nutrients”. We present the main contents of Chilean and Peruvian regulation, the related discussions and impacts assessed.

Keywords: Chile; Peru; food labeling; front-of-package nutrition labelling; nutrition