The five warning seals and two cautionary legends alert you to excessive calories, sugars, fats, sodium, caffeine, and non-caloric sweeteners.
In Mexico, a thousand deaths a year are associated with the consumption of sugary drinks. The Front Label Warning system, to quickly and clearly identify packaged food products with excessive content of calories, sugars, fats, sodium, caffeine and non-caloric sweeteners, also known as critical foods, was implemented last October, as a strategy that empowers the consumer and seeks to gradually influence better health.
The foregoing was presented in a virtual panel organized this Thursday by the Jalisco Health Secretariat (SSJ), in which specialists in nutrition and health regulation participated, highlighting the benefits of this policy for the population to reduce the consumption of ultra-processed products and prevent chronic diseases.
"A characteristic of ultra-processed foods is that they can almost always have more than 20 ingredients including sugars, added sodium fats, and other additives," said Ana Munguía Serrano, researcher at the Center for Research in Nutrition and Health. She also stated that Mexico It is the second country in Latin America with the highest sales of these products.
"In the diet of Mexicans, according to the National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT 2018,) around 30% of the calories we consume per day come from ultra-processed foods," said Munguía Serrano.
Among the unhealthy foods that Mexicans consume the most, sugary drinks top the list. “This food is consumed by all population groups, both in small children from one year, to children, adolescents, and adults. It is also known that 70% of the intake of added sugars in the diet of Mexicans comes from sugary drinks.”
The researcher described this situation as worrisome. And she added, "About 7% of annual deaths in our country are exclusively associated with the consumption of sugary drinks, that is, more than 40,000 deaths a year are attributable to these drinks."
The nutrition specialist emphasized that the serious problem of obesity in Mexico is multi-causal (social, economic, cultural, among others,) and it cannot be expected that a single strategy, such as Front Warning Labeling, will influence the decrease of the problem. However, it is an important part of the different prevention actions that the state must undertake.
"We have left our traditional diet prepared with fresh natural or minimally processed foods to switch to a diet high in ultra-processed products, packaged containing large amounts of fat, sugar, or sodium, which is creating a food environment that is not conducive to health," stated the coordinator of the Healthy Lifestyles component of the SSJ, Alejandra Matías Serrano.
For her part, the person in charge of the Department of Products and Services of the Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks of the State of Jalisco (Coprisjal), Mayra Otilia Zepeda Romero, commented that the agency currently supports the population and producers with any questions regarding compliance with the Official Mexican Standard 051 (NOM 051.)
If you have any questions, call 33 3030 5700 ext. 35211 during office hours, or via WhatsApp for complaints and doubts, 331342-0826.
THE NEW FRONT LABELING WARNING
It is represented by five black octagons: high in sugars, high in saturated fat, high in sodium, high in calories, excess of trans fat, and two cautionary legends for sweetening additives or caffeine (to prevent metabolic effects -especially in girls and boys- that might be caused by those added components.)
The nutrients represented in the five octagons and the two legends that currently appear in various products and non-alcoholic beverages are called critical foods because they are related to the development of diseases such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes, diseases with more prevalence in this country.
Food is part of our life. It is advisable to eat more slowly, savor food, never go shopping go with hunger, and share the purchasing and preparation of your food with your family.
PRIORITY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR USE OF WARNING LABELING
- Your first choice should be fresh and natural foods.
- Choose products without stamps.
- Choose products that have fewer stamps.
- Compare the same product, (milk with milk,) with the same number of stamps, then choose the one with the lowest content of critical ingredients.