Health Official Details Mexico's Plan to Fight Obesity and Diabetes The News
go to original November 4, 2013

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s strategy for fighting obesity and diabetes will include the imposition of new product labels and nutritional seals, as well as restrictions on junk food advertising, Commission for Sanitary Risk Prevention (Cofepris) Director Mikel Arriola Peñalosa said on Sunday.

According to Arriola, these new measures, which he expects will be approved in the next two months, will place Mexico at the forefront of countries in regulating unhealthy food.

One of the proposed measures is to require drinks and processed food products to clearly state their calorific content and their percentage of the recommended daily intake of calories, sugar and sodium on the front of their packaging.

For example, the first thing a potential consumer of a family-sized soda will see is that it contains 1,380 calories and represents 383 percent of the recommended daily sugar intake.

“What we want is for the consumer to say ‘that’s a lot’ and think about consuming only one portion of the product, something with 92 calories for example, which will also be clearly labeled,” Arriola said.

Another measure will provide an incentive for the creators of processed foods to make their products more nutritious through a voluntary nutritional quality seal that will be issued by Cofepris.

Arriola said that to obtain this seal, the product will have to contain low amounts of saturated fat, sodium and sugar, or none at all.

“The emphasis is on consumers having more information, allowing them to make rational consumption decisions,” Arriola said. “I believe that this reform will give them all the elements needed to decide which products are good and which will harm their health if consumed in excess.”

See the original at The News

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!