WHO recommends easy-to-read health labels on food packaging – National

Packaged foods and drinks must have easy-to-read nutritional information on the front of the products to help consumers make healthier choices, according to the World Health Organization’s first-ever draft guidelines that went no further than recommending stricter warning labels.

Increased consumption of processed foods high in salt, sugar and fat is a major driver of a global obesity crisis, with more than a billion people living with the condition and an estimated eight million premature deaths each year from associated health problems such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. disease, according to WHO data.

Yet governments have struggled to introduce policies to curb the epidemic. Currently, only 43 WHO member states have any form of front-of-pack labeling, mandatory or voluntary, the UN agency told Reuters, despite evidence showing that labels can influence purchasing behavior.

WHO started working on the draft guidelines in 2019, which have not been previously reported. They aim to “support consumers in making healthier food-related decisions,” says Katrin Engelhardt, a scientist at the WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety. told Reuters by email.

A public consultation on the guidelines closed on October 11 and the final version will be released in early 2025.

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The WHO guidelines recommend governments implement ‘interpretive’ labels that provide nutritional information and some explanation of what that means about a product’s health.

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An example of this is NutriScore, developed in France and used in a number of European countries, which ranks foods from A (green, with essential nutrients) to E (red, with high levels of added salts, sugars, fats or calories).

Chile and several other countries in Latin America use a stricter system, with warnings that a food is “high in sugar,” salt or fat, on the front of the package, in a black octagon that resembles a stop sign. Food labeling expert Lindsey Smith Taillie, co-director of the Global Food Research Program at the University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said the food industry has resisted warnings and favors “non-interpretive” labels, which contain nutrient information, but no guide on how to understand what that means, as used in the United States.

This week, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders announced plans for a Senate hearing on stricter food labeling in December. Although the WHO recommendation goes a step further than industry preference, it is “fairly weak,” Taillie said.

“The most important thing for most countries worldwide will be limiting excessive intake of added sugars, sodium, saturated fat and ultra-processed foods in general – and that’s what warning labels do best.”

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Research this summer by Taillie showed that Chile’s warning labels, among other policies such as marketing restrictions to children, meant Chileans would buy 37% less sugar, 22% less sodium, 16% less saturated fat and 23% fewer total calories compared to when the law had not done so. implemented.

The WHO said there was not enough evidence to determine the best labeling system.

The International Food and Beverage Alliance, whose members include The Coca Cola Company and Mondelez International Inc, said its members already have minimum global standards in place. They include the listing of nutrients on the back of the pack, plus a detail on the front of the pack on at least the energy content, where possible, in line with the international Codex Alimentarius system.

“This is something that global companies can do, but it is clearly not enough because if you take Nigeria or Pakistan… the market is dominated by local producers,” said Rocco Renaldi, secretary general of the IFBA. He said alliance members broadly support WHO guidelines and nutrient-based labels.

“But the devil is in the detail – in general we do not support approaches that demonize certain products,” he said. “We do not believe that health warning labels should be on food products that are considered safe, approved, marketed and loved by consumers.”

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby, Editing by Michele Gershberg and Kim Coghill)