WHO directs companies to put labels on front for packaged foods

Recently, as per a Reuters report, WHO has recommended new guidelines for packaged foods and has directed the companies to put the labels on the front. This would enable easy-to-read nutritional information on the front of packaged food and drinks to help the consumer make healthier choices. These guidelines are of the first kind and will have a chance to counter the global obesity epidemic being fueled by processed foods high in salt, sugar, and fat. According to WHO statistics, one billion people around the globe are obese. This leads to eight million premature deaths every year based on health conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

According to Reuters, "Currently, only 43 WHO member states have adopted any form of front-of-package labelling, either mandatory or voluntary." Despite these scary statistics, no government could effectively regulate policies to overcome the epidemic.

The same report cites Katrin Engelhardt, a scientist in WHO's Nutrition and Food Safety Department, as saying that the guidelines, developed in 2019, are supposed to "support consumers in making healthier food-related decisions." The final guidelines will go public in early 2025, following the end of the public consultation on 11 October 2024.

The proposed recommendations would tell governments to adopt "interpretive" brands, whereby nutritional information will be delivered together with the interpretation of those nutrients about health implications. Among the available systems include NutriScore, a colour-coded system, developed in France and widely used in some parts of Europe rating from green (high in nutrient-rich) to red (high in unhealthy additives).

Contrasting with these, some Latin American countries such as Chile, have put a warning system to be more rigorous, which targets at indicating a black octagon, just like a stop sign, on its surface to draw attention to foods with high sugar, salt or fat. A study held at the University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has established that these labels and other policy interventions have resulted in significant and population-wide declines in the consumption of threatening ingredients in Chile. Chileans have purchased 37% less sugar, 22% less sodium, 16% less saturated fat and 23% fewer total calories, since the adoption of such measures, according to food labeling expert Lindsey Smith Taillie.

Part of the debate going on is that more stringent steps are needed to avoid excessive use of unhealthy foods, including added sugars, sodium, and saturated fats. But the WHO stated that the evidence is still insufficient in order to establish the best form of labelling.

(Thumb image courtesy: Canva)