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

Packaged nutrient and drinks should person easy-to-read nutritional accusation connected the beforehand of the products to assistance consumers marque healthier choices, according to the first-ever World Health Organization draught guidelines that stopped abbreviated of recommending harsher informing labels.

Increased depletion of processed foods precocious successful salt, sweetener and abdominous is simply a cardinal operator of a global obesity crisis, with much than a cardinal radical surviving with the information and an estimated 8 cardinal aboriginal deaths each twelvemonth owed to associated wellness problems similar diabetes and bosom disease, WHO information shows.

Yet governments person struggled to present policies to curb the epidemic. Currently, lone 43 WHO subordinate states person immoderate benignant of front-of-package labeling either mandatory oregon voluntary, the UN bureau told Reuters, contempt grounds showing labels tin impact buying behavior.

The WHO began enactment connected the draught guidelines, which person not been antecedently reported, successful 2019. They purpose “to enactment consumers successful making healthier food-related decisions,” Katrin Engelhardt, a idiosyncratic successful the Nutrition and Food Safety section of the WHO, told Reuters by email.

A nationalist consultation connected the guidelines closed connected Oct. 11 and the finalized mentation volition beryllium released successful aboriginal 2025.

The WHO’s guidance recommends governments instrumentality “interpretive” labels that see nutritional accusation and immoderate mentation of what that means astir the healthiness of a product.

An illustration would beryllium NutriScore, developed successful France and utilized successful a fig of European countries, which ranks food from A (green, containing indispensable nutrients) to E (red, containing precocious levels of added salts, sugars, fats oregon calories).

Chile and respective different countries successful Latin America usage a tougher system, with warnings that a food is “high successful sugar,” brackish oregon abdominous connected the beforehand of the package, successful a achromatic octagon that resembles a halt sign. Food labeling adept Lindsey Smith Taillie, co-director of the Global Food Research Program astatine the University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said the food industry has pushed backmost against warnings and favors “non-interpretive” labels, which see the nutrient accusation but nary usher connected however to recognize what that means, specified arsenic those utilized successful the United States.

This week, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders announced plans for a Senate proceeding connected tougher food labeling successful December. While the WHO proposal goes a measurement further than the industry’s preference, it “is reasonably weak,” Taillie said.

“The astir important happening for astir countries globally is going to beryllium to bounds excess intake of added sugars, sodium, saturated abdominous and ultra-processed foods much mostly – which is what informing labels bash best.”

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Research this summertime by Taillie showed Chile’s informing labels, alongside different policies similar selling restrictions to children, meant Chileans bought 37% little sugar, 22% little sodium, 16% little saturated abdominous and 23% less full calories compared to if the instrumentality had not been implemented.

The WHO said determination was not capable grounds to find the champion statement system.

The International Food and Beverage Alliance, whose members see The Coca Cola Company and Mondelez International Inc, said that its members already person minimum worldwide standards globally. They see listing nutrients connected the backmost of packages, positive a beforehand of battalion item connected astatine slightest the vigor contented wherever practicable, successful enactment with the planetary Codex Alimentarius system.

“This is thing planetary companies tin do, but it’s intelligibly not capable due to the fact that if you instrumentality Nigeria oregon Pakistan … the marketplace is dominated by section producers,” said Rocco Renaldi, the IFBA’s Secretary-General. He said the alliance’s members broadly enactment the WHO’s guidelines and nutrient-based labels.

“But the devil is successful the item – mostly speaking, we don’t enactment approaches that demonize peculiar products,” helium said. “We don’t deliberation health-warning benignant labels beryllium on food products that are deemed safe, approved and connected the market, and loved by consumers.”

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