Honduras Discusses Front Labeling Law

By Bufete Mejia & Asociados

The Honduran National Congress is currently discussing an initiative that seeks to label food and beverage products with black seals on the front of the packaging, based on a criteria of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

The proposed system would use black warning seals to highlight products with excessive levels of sugar, fats, sodium, or calories. According to 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. As a key policy tool to regulate such products to prevent them from unbalancing diets, PAHO has pushed the use of front-of-package labeling to indicate consumers which products contain excessive amounts of sugars, total fats, saturated fats, trans fats, and sodium.

As in other countries, the initiative has generated controversy in Honduras, with organizations like the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP) expressing opposition and requesting that the law be shelved. 

"We have been clear with the legislators that the bill should be shelved for several reasons, including that it would harm micro, small, and medium-sized businesses not only in job creation but also by increasing the cost of products, as companies would have to invest in changing their labels, which would most likely be passed on to the cost of the product," said lawyer Armando Urtecho, Executive Director of COHEP.

Although scientific research has shown that well-designed front-of-package labels influence behavior, improve the food choices people make and provide them information that they have the right to know, food companies have long insist that they challenge their business models and are a potential source of financial risk. Food labeling increases costs, discourages consumers from purchasing their products, unfairly impact their products compared to competitors and oversimplify complex nutritional information. 

Furthermore, governments have conducted market research and found that black seals often have an increased negative impact on food products. As a result, they are working towards implementing more colorful and consumer-friendly front-of-package nutrition labels for foods and beverages.