Regulatory landscape

Front-of-pack nutrition labelling

Governments across South America are stepping up pressure on manufacturers to reformulate through front-of-pack nutrition labels

In 2016, Chile introduced mandatory black-andwhite warning labels for products high in salt, sugar, calories, and saturated fat, followed by Peru in 2019 Others are following suite: Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Colombia are all at various stages of introducing similar black-and-white warning labels for unhealthy products – although industry opposition has resulted in delays in several countries Ecuador, meanwhile, opted for a traffic light-style nutrition label, similar to the UK model, which is obligatory on packaged foods

These efforts earned the praise of the World Health Organization (WHO), which called Latin America “one of the most advanced [regions] globally”, by allowing consumers to identify products with excessive amounts of unhealthy nutrients quickly and easily 24

In some countries, such as Chile, the nutrition label was accompanied by other measures such as restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to children, which famously saw cartoon characters disappear from the packaging of products that exceeded the nutrient thresholds, such as Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger

Trans fat

Chile was the first country in South America to set a 2% limit on industrially produced trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils) in 2009 It was followed by Argentina in 2010, Colombia in 2012, Ecuador in 2013, Peru in 2016, and Uruguay in 2017

Bolivia is currently preparing regulations to limit industrial trans fats and Paraguay is in advanced stages of the regulatory process The Brazilian food regulatory agency, ANVISA, recently announced a 2% limit on industrial trans fats in all food and drink products and a total ban on partially hydrogenated oils by 2023

The bans in Peru and Uruguay have not yet been fully implemented, and several countries initially included exceptions that were later judged unnecessary For example, in Argentina, margarines or shortenings that contain industrially produced trans fats and are used as raw material for manufacturing food products are not covered by the regulation, however, this is currently being amended 25