Argentina still undecided regarding food labeling bill

By Estudio Chaloupka

The Chamber of Deputies of Argentina still hasn’t resume deliberation on wether a bill regarding front-of-package labeling is necessary to warn consumers about the risks of certain foods and drinks.

Although the bill secured initial approval in the Senate a year ago and is currently backed up by deputies from the governing party, deputies from the opposition insist on the need of adding new articles that harmonize the bill with similar legislations of Brazil and Uruguay, two of Argentina’s allies in the Mercosur trade bloc.

The proposed bill sets guidelines for healthy eating, restrictions on advertisements and the placement of a series of black octagon-white lettering shaped seals on foods high in sodium, sugar, saturated fats, total fast and quantity of calories.

It is based on World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) recommendations to reduce childhood obesity, and includes banning the use of fictional characters (possibly figurative marks) in food products advertisements aimed at children. Obesity in Argentina affects 4 out of every 10 minors and 7 out of every 10 adults.

According to the PAHO, the excessive consumption of sugars, fats and sodium is a public health problem that is associated with the non-communicable diseases that most affect the population: overweight or obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and vascular, heart and brain diseases and kidney. 

One of the key policy tools to regulate such products to prevent them from unbalancing diets is the use of front-of-package labeling (FOPL) to indicate consumers which products contain excessive amounts of sugars, total fats, saturated fats, trans fats, an sodium.
The PAHO nutrient profile model allows the identification of products that should contain warnings on the front of the containers for their excessive content of critical nutrients that can affect health.