On September 4, 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) shared a draft guideline focused on nutrition labelling policies aiming at assisting Member States for the development and implementation of effective nutrition labelling policies to promote healthier dietary practices among children and adults. 

In summary, the guidelines would address several aspects of nutrition labelling, including the list of ingredients, nutrient declarations, front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FOPL), and nutrition and health claims. Some key points from the draft: 

• The guideline emphasises the inclusion of a list of ingredients on prepackaged food, consistent with the Codex Alimentarius General Standard for the labelling of prepackaged foods.
• It strongly recommends implementing nutrient declarations and FOPL policies to improve consumer understanding and food choices.
• WHO highlight the preference for those FOPL providing guidance on the relative healthfulness of the food product (also called interpretive FOPL) over those only providing nutrient content information without guidance on the food's nutritional value (designated as non-interpretive FOPL). 
• Governments must ensure protection of consumers from misleading nutrition and health claims by implementing regulation aligned with relevant Codex Alimentarius guidelines.
• The importance of government-led engagement, public education and the need for national policies to be consistent with regulatory objectives and national dietary guidelines are highlighted.
• The guideline express the need to develop more real-world trials on the impact of implemented nutrition labelling policies and studies on factors affecting food choice in real-life purchasing situations.

It is remarkable that this WHO guideline may have a major impact on nutrition labelling policy discussions at national level in the near future, promoting initiatives aimed at amending labels with new information to promote healthier dietary practices.

Reach out to us to know more about how this WHO initiative impacts in the nutrition labelling and FOPL regulations in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

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Published: 24 September, 2024

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