Food labelling and advertising law (Chile)

According to a 2010 national health survey, more than 60 percent of Chile’s population suffers from excessive weight. The problem begins early in childhood, with more than 10 percent of children under six, more than 15 percent of preschoolers and more than 25 percent of first-grade children presenting with obesity. When the overweight and the obese children are considered as a group, more than 50 percent of them, according to the Chilean Ministry of Health, are found to suffer from malnutrition, which is considered the main public health problem in the country.[2]

The law has eleven articles; its stipulations establish:

• The responsibility of manufacturers, importers or producers of food for human consumption to have specific labels on the nature of the product, with full and truthful information, and their responsibility to ensure that good practices guaranteeing food safety are followed in their production chain.

• A duty of manufacturers, producers, distributors and importers of food to inform, on their containers or on their labels, as to the ingredients contained, including all additives and their nutritional information, to follow food health regulations in which the characteristics and content of said food will determine the labelling, and especially to ensure that the information is sufficiently visible and comprehensible.

• A prohibition against adulterating ingredients and prepared foods with anything that in some way may create an erroneous impression regarding their true nature, composition or quality, or that may cause damage to health, as determined by the Ministry of Health.

• A duty of preschool, elementary and secondary schools to include educational materials and exercise in order to promote healthy eating habits and physical activity, and the mandated requirement for the Education and Health ministries to have a nutritional monitoring system for students in preschool, elementary and secondary school.

• The requirement for the Ministry of Health to determine foods whose nutritional composition has high amounts of calories, fats, sugars or salt (or other ingredients, as determined by regulation), setting permitted maximums and ensuring compliance through the public health system.

• A prohibition against commercial sale or distribution in preschool, elementary and secondary schools of food products labelled as high in the regulated nutrients or calories, as well as the free delivery or advertising of such products to children under 14, including commercial tie-ins designed to appeal to children, such as toys, accessories, adhesives or similar products.

• A prohibition against labelling baby formulas and breast-milk substitutes in any way that may discourage breastfeeding.

• An obligation that any food product marketed in Chile that contains among its ingredients — or that has used, in the course of its preparation — soy, milk, peanuts, eggs, seafood, fish, gluten or nuts must indicate this on its package or label.

Health ministry decree No. 13 (April 16, 2015), amended the government's processed foods regulation to adapt it to the provisions of Law 20.606 and specifying maximum calories, sodium, sugars and saturated fats in food; the values were set to diminish by progressive stages after the regulation's entry into force.[3] The limits stipulated by law are:

The regulation also detailed the foods that are exempted from the labelling obligation, which includes foods without added sugars, honey or syrups; without added sodium and without saturated fats; those sold in bulk or portioned out, divided and prepared at the request of the public (even if they are packaged at the time of sale); infant formula; commercially prepared minced baby food, unless they contain added sugar; food prepared for medical use; food for weight control regimens; dietary supplements and certain foods for athletes; and table-top sugar substitutes.[3]

Several countries have expressed interest in the Chilean standards and have considered their content in developing their own countries' labelling regulations, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, El Salvador and Uruguay.

In addition, international organizations — including the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Pan American Health Organization,[4] the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization, the Union of South American Nations and the OECD — have expressed support for the Chilean food labelling and advertising law and regulations and have facilitated bilateral cooperation, memoranda of understanding and the establishment of international networks. Codex Alimentarius has urged member countries to revise regulations on labelling, while the World Trade Organization has established international discussion panels on food labelling, at which Chile has been a prominent speaker.[2]

In addition, during North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations, the governments of Mexico and Canada have advocated for nutritional warnings on foods, inspired by the Chilean experience, but the current United States government has supported efforts of the commercial food and beverage industry to prevent the adoption of laws similar to Chile's by demanding NAFTA clauses forbidding the enactment of such consumer safety laws in Canada, Mexico and the United States.” Lora Verheecke, a researcher at the Corporate Europe Observatory, a non-profit group tracking corporate lobbying, has declared that once such pro-industry and anti-consumer rules are enshrined into international trade agreements, it becomes extremely difficult to overturn them in the laws of trade-pact member states: “It kind of kills a law before it can be written, and once you put it into one trade agreement, it can become the precedent for all future deals with future countries.”[5]