Consumer-Friendly Packaging Rule Facilitates Healthier Food Choices
The deadline for adapting the packaging of food products with information about high salt, saturated fat and sugar content on the labels has passed. The rule came into effect last year, but the deadline for changing new packaging had been extended and stock produced before the rule could still be sold until October. Ana Paula Bortoletto, researcher at the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health at the Faculty of Public Health at USP, explains the issues surrounding the change.
The professor says that Brazil already had a standard on nutritional labeling of foods, but that it was already outdated. “At the beginning of the 2000s it was no longer adequate. It predicted that little information should be available on labels and without a specific rule on how readable the information should be,” she says. The most important nutritional information was allocated in small spaces on the packaging, generally in smaller letters. “People did not understand this information and meanwhile the information in the advertising format, highlighting the positive characteristics of the food, is at the forefront”, she adds.
The teacher indicates that, with the new rule, the nutrient table is more accessible on the packaging and with more complete information. The table already existed before, but now it must be presented with a white background and black letters, in addition to having a minimum size for the font of the letters, so that it has more visibility. She indicates that another important change to the table is the addition of information about sugar, which did not exist before. It also provides information in grams and not just per portion, which means that people can compare any type of product and any category without having to make calculations for the comparison.
For the researcher, the big innovation of the changes is the magnifying glass, which is the mechanism that brings information about the high content of nutrients that can be harmful to your health to the front of the packaging. Saturated fat and added sugar were chosen by Anvisa.
Information and behavior changes
According to the expert, the greater emphasis given to information that is relevant to health, the more people become accustomed to using this information into consideration when choosing food. “We are taking inspiration from the tobacco experience. From the highlighting of ostensible information about the dangers of cigarettes, there was a considerable reduction in Brazilian smoking.”
Ana continues with the explanation that generating a change in interests is a complex process. “This requires other policies that are complementary to this greater awareness about food. Therefore, we understand that the label is one of the actions, as it brings this information more prominently. But compared to other countries, such as Mexico or Chile, the emphasis is still not adequate. The emphasis in other countries is greater and the symbol has more monitored nutrients.”
The professor says that there is a great challenge facing the issue in Brazil. “We need to have more coordinated actions. Actions linked to the school curriculum, targeting children, who assimilate this information more efficiently. Include this attention in the information and provide training on healthy eating and labeling from an early age, an action to disseminate information in teaching materials available in schools.”
Ana believes that the state health and education infrastructure must mobilize to reach more people, with advertisements in UBS and greater attention to the importance of healthier eating. “We have already seen in Chile, for example, that it was children who began to change their behavior faster in relation to labeling information. I think this is one of the ways to use it. We must continue with studies to evaluate the project and continue improving”, she concludes.