Summary: Chile has introduced a law to label all unhealthy food. The marking is a black octagon that shows whether the food contains too much sugar, salt, saturated fat or calories. It was also forbidden to sell unhealthy food in school canteens and to advertise such food aimed at children. One year after the law was introduced, the sale of unhealthy food decreased, especially soft drinks, juice and other sugary beverages. Researcher Marcela Reyes believes that the labeling has been a success, but that there is still a need for more measures to tackle obesity. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. It started with an idea from a politician in the Senate in Chile. He was concerned that more and more Chileans were becoming overweight and getting the disease obesity. – Even though we had health campaigns and the like, obesity increased, especially in children, says researcher Marcela Reyes at the University of Chile. The solution was simple: Label all unhealthy food with the fact that it is actually unhealthy. Is there too much sugar, salt, saturated fat or calories? Then there must be a black octagon on the packaging. The text on the octagons says that the food marked with this graphic contains a lot of sugar, salt, saturated fat or calories. Graphic: Ministry of Health in Chile In addition, it was forbidden to sell such food in school canteens, and to advertise such food aimed at children. In 2016, the new law came into effect. It didn’t take long before it yielded results. Resistance Chile is not the first country to demand that producers label their food with what it contains. Here in Norway, for example, you can see how much energy your soda bottle contains. But it is not so easy to understand what this means. The tiny gray and white label shows how much energy there is in a portion of soft drink. There are two portions in the half liter bottle. Photo: Sverre Lilleeng / news In addition, the green key hole is used for food that is healthier than similar products in the same category. In Chile, they have made it even clearer. – The food industry here was of course very much against this, says Marcela Reyes. They said that the labeling would, among other things, lead to fewer jobs, and problems with importing food to Chile. The results came quickly In recent years, Reyes and a larger team at the University of Chile have been researching the effects of the rules that were introduced. Marcela Reyes has researched how the food labeling law in Chile has worked. Photo: INTA Already one year after the food was labeled, the number of unhealthy foods decreased. In particular, the researchers saw a clear decrease in the consumption of soft drinks, juice and other drinks with sugar. – It is a great success, says Reyes. – The biggest change came in drinks. The change is smaller for other types of food, but we have seen a clear decline there as well. In addition to the improvement in what people buy, the industry has taken action. The food industry in Chile has been affected by the law. Photo: Sverre Lilleeng / news Change content They have simply made part of the food healthier. – Before the introduction of the law, we reckoned that around half of all food had to be labeled as containing too much of something. But the result is that only 40 per cent of the food needs this labelling, says Reyes. The rules have gradually become stricter. The limit for what must be marked has become increasingly lower. The aim has been to give the industry time to keep up with developments. – We have not published these results, but we have seen that the same thing has happened every time the rules have been tightened, says the researcher. Several other countries have copied the food labeling that Chile started with. This example is from Mexico. Photo: ProtoplasmaKid / Wikimedia/CC SA-4.0 In addition, it turns out that there have not been fewer jobs in the industry, and the wages of the workers have not developed differently to others. Expert group Clinical nutritionist Tine Sundfør has just used the case from Chile in her teaching for the master’s students in community nutrition. – I know that I have an ambivalent relationship with it, so to speak, she says. In addition to lecturing, she is also part of an expert group that will find effective measures to ensure that Norwegians have a healthier diet. – Personally, I think that if this is really going to work, then we have to supplement it with a combination of taxes on unhealthy food and preferably subsidies on healthy food, says Sundfør. Tine Sundfør has a doctorate in nutrition. Photo: Jil Yngland / NTB In other words, it is not enough to label the food as not being very healthy. In addition, Sundfør hopes that a ban can be introduced against making large packages and bottles of unhealthy food and drink. For example, it should not be allowed to make soda bottles that are larger than one litre. – It’s my wet dream, she says. Sundfør says those who sell food make large packages to get us to buy more. – And when we buy more, we see more. Marcela Reyes in Chile believes that the labeling introduced there has been a success. But she agrees that even more must be done. – It is not enough, not at all. There are still more people who become obese.
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Chile started to label unhealthy food – then the saddle fell off – news Trøndelag – Local news, TV and radio
