Who has never had difficulty understanding the nutritional information on a food label? Increasingly, the population is becoming aware of the importance of knowing the nutrients present in their food, especially in industrialized and ultra-processed products. Therefore, consumers demand easy-to-understand labels, but this is not always industry practice.
To provide more transparency to nutritional information, new rules for food labeling came into force in Brazil starting this month. One of the main differences is that foods with high levels of sugar, sodium and saturated fat must display this information prominently on the front of the packaging, as a warning to consumers.
"The objective is to facilitate the consumer's decision-making at the time of purchase. We will no longer need to turn the packaging and look for those small letters, which no one can read", explains the nutritionist and researcher at the Center for Studies and Research in Food (Nepa) from Unicamp, Ana Clara Durán, who participated in the process of formulating the new rules with the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).
"Why these three nutrients? There is already very consolidated evidence that they increase the risk of developing some diseases, mainly diabetes, in the case of sugar and, even more so, in sugar-sweetened drinks. Sodium is related to hypertension, and saturated fat is associated with accumulation in the arteries, which increases the risk of ischemic or vascular diseases. In addition to all this, sugar and saturated fat are directly associated with obesity", explains Ana Clara.
In addition to the warnings on the front of the packaging, nutritional information tables can now only have black letters and a white background, to prevent possible contrasts from interfering with reading. The standards provide for other modifications so that the nutritional table is clearer and easier to understand.
It was through a group from the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health (NUPENS), at the University of São Paulo (USP), where she is also a researcher, that Ana Clara participated in the process of formulating the new labeling.
Since 2017, the group has been working with regulatory public policies to help improve the diet of the Brazilian population. Anvisa then began inviting them to meetings, with the aim of receiving scientific input to support new labeling proposals.
"We participated in several conversations with Anvisa's technical team. I went to Brasília many times. The first documents for the public consultation were largely based on studies and information that we had presented. We also supported civil society entities, such as the Brazilian Defense Institute (IDEC), which gave strong support to this cause".
Sweeteners were left out
The debates to reach the approval of the new rules brought together members of the scientific community, civil society and the food industry. Ana Clara believes that, due to pressure from industry representatives, the final approved version ended up being milder than experts intended - without warnings, for example, for high levels of sweeteners, which are also significantly associated with many health problems, as more recent scientific evidence has demonstrated, according to the researcher.
"Many products contain sweeteners, but they do not make this clear to the consumer. We continue to be in contact with Anvisa and we are now in the monitoring and impact assessment phase of the implementation of the standard, what the response from the industry and consumers will be. The reference we have from other countries that have implemented this type of standard is that the industry tends to replace sugar with sweetener, so as not to receive warnings."
The researcher observes that many products that use advertising to convey a "healthy" image, such as some types of yogurt, cereal bars and "natural" foods, are full of sweeteners, without this being clearly informed to consumers. "We are consuming without knowing it, that's the big problem. This is an ethical issue, right?"
Transition
New products launched from October 9th already need to follow the new rules, but the transition period for products already on the market can take up to three years.
Food in general has up to 12 months to adapt. Products manufactured by family farmers, solidarity economic enterprises, individual micro-entrepreneurs and small or artisanal agribusinesses have up to 24 months. Non-alcoholic drinks with returnable packaging have a shelf life of up to 36 months.
Check out more information about food labeling at Anvisa Portal.
