NUTRITION

Nutrition labelling. On March 3, the Alliance of ENT published a letter expressing its support for the new Mexican labelling regulation (NOM-051) that foresees a mechanism to warn citizens when meals have high concentrations of sugar, sodium and fat. The agency thus echoes the views of other global partners such as the Pan-american Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Obesity Federation and the World Cancer Research Fund. It is expected that in the course of 2020, countries that are considering the incorporation of nutrition labelling measures will consider these recommendations when generating their own labelling schemes.

The NCD Alliance expressed its disagreement with Mexican industrial groups, including the Industrial Chambers Confederation (Concamin), which on March 1 obtained a court ruling for the “provisional suspension” of the new regulation. In response, government agencies such as the Ministry of Health and the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris), and various civil society actors, underlined their support for the proposed labeling scheme, which “seeks to create a system that helps prevent obesity in the country” and publicly denounced the decision of the industrialists.

It is worth remembering that Mexico’s new labelling system is based on PAHO’s nutrient profile, in common with the one implemented in Chile in 2015. This system is understood by the NCD Alliance as “a powerful policy to alert consumers to the amount of sugar in food products, the levels of fat, sodium and calories”. This system would feature a front warning label that would replace the “Recommended Daily Amount” labels developed in 2014.

The modifications to Mexican Standard NOM-051 were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) on March 27. However, its enactment has been delayed due to an appeal made by industrial groups, who argued that “the voices of the private sector had not been considered”. The new regulation will come into force on October 1, 2020. The NCD Alliance said it “stands ready to support Mexico and any other country in the world to promote and adopt internationally recommended policies to prevent and control NCDs and obesity.

Next steps

The process of establishing a warning label in Mexico may constitute a test case. The new standard had already been published in the Official Gazette when it was temporarily suspended following a private sector challenge. Now other countries of the region that are analyzing the incorporation of similarly modeled warning labels – Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia and Panama, among others – are expected to take into account learning from this and advice from the Alliance Against Non-Communicable Diseases, PAHO and UNICEF so as to avoid similar legal obstacles to those experienced in Mexico.