Objective: To identify and monitor food industry use of political practices during the adoption of nutrition warning labels (WL) in Colombia. Design: Document analysis of publicly available information triangulated with interviews. Setting: Colombia. Participants: Eighteen key informants from the government (n 2), academia (n 1), civil society (n 12), the media (n 2) and a former food industry employee (n 1). Results: In Colombia, the food industry used experts and groups funded by large transnationals to promote its preferred front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FOPL) and discredit the proposed warning models. The industry criticised the proposed WL, discussing the negative impacts they would have on trade, the excessive costs required to implement them and the fact that consumers were responsible for making the right choices about what to eat. Food industry actors also interacted with the government and former members of large trade associations now in decision-making positions in the public sector. The Codex Alimentarius was also a platform through which the industry got access to decision-making and could influence the FOPL policy. Conclusions: In Colombia, the food industry used a broad range of political strategies that could have negatively influenced the FOPL policy process. Despite this influence, the mandatory use of WL was announced in February 2020. There is an urgent need to condemn such political practices as they still could prevent the implementation of other internationally recommended measures to improve population health in the country and abroad, nutrition WL being only of them.

Background In Colombia, public health policies to improve food environments, including front-of-pack nutrition labelling and marketing restrictions for unhealthy products, are currently under development. Opposition to these policies by the food industry is currently delaying and weakening these efforts. This opposition is commonly known as ‘corporate political activity’ (CPA) and includes instrumental (action-based) strategies and discursive (argument-based) strategies. Our aim was to identify the CPA of the food industry in Colombia. Methods We conducted a document analysis of information available in the public domain published between January–July 2019. We triangulated this data with interviews with 17 key informants. We used a deductive approach to data analysis, based on an existing framework for the CPA of the food industry. Results We identified 275 occurrences of CPA through our analysis of publicly available information. There were 197 examples of instrumental strategies and 138 examples of discursive strategies (these categories are not mutually exclusive, 60 examples belong to both categories). Interview participants also shared information about the CPA in the country. The industry used its discursive strategies to portray the industry in a ‘better light’, demonstrating its efforts in improving food environments and its role in the economic development of the country. The food industry was involved in several community programmes, including through public private initiatives. The industry also captured the media and tried to influence the science on nutrition and non-communicable diseases. Food industry actors were highly prominent in the policy sphere, through their lobbying, close relationships with high ranking officials and their support for self-regulation in the country. Conclusions The proximity between the industry, government and the media is particularly evident and remains largely unquestioned in Colombia. The influence of vulnerable populations in communities and feeling of insecurity by public health advocates is also worrisome. In Colombia, the CPA of the food industry has the potential to weaken and delay efforts to develop and implement public health policies that could improve the healthiness of food environments. It is urgent that mechanisms to prevent and manage the influence of the food industry are developed in the country.

This paper addresses the conceptions with which the analysis of alimentary and nutritional public policies during 2000 and 2015 have been elaborated. Theoretical considerations are proposed for the approach of a broad spectrum of what could be classified as public policy analysis in the framework of a more extensive field; it is the case of public policy studies. A qualitative methodological design was elaborated, based on the documentary analysis of the 36 texts that contain analytical contributions to the formulation, implementation and evaluation of the sector policies. In conclusion, the different theoretical, methodological and disciplinary postures indicate that the alimentary and nutritional security is the guiding axis of alimentary and nutritional policy studies, according to the sequential approach (public policy cycle), without explicit reference to the scope and limitations of the aforementioned approach as a theoretical or methodological strategy for the study of the public policies procedure. Likewise,

Este trabajo evalua la estructura, los vínculos y los indicadores generales de conformación de una Red Académica, a través de proyectos inductores de Soberanía y Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional desarrollados en Brasil en el período de 2013 a 2016. Para comprender las interacciones entre las instituciones de los proyectos se acogieron los principios básicos del método del Análisis de Redes Sociales. Los resultados mostraron que las regiones sureste y sur concentraron el mayor número de proyectos, exponiendo una distribución característica de la producción académica en estas áreas de conocimiento. El análisis de la red mostró una densidad creciente de organizaciones donde muchos países se unieron de forma incremental. Esto significa que, a los nuevos miembros, les fue fácil conectarse a la red. Además, la centralización evidenció que la red, en el periodo analizado, estuvo claramente conectada gracias al papel central ejercido por la coordinación técnica -ejecutiva de nivel gubernamental apoyada por una institución académica. Asi, esta red centralizada a partir de la coordinación compartida entre el gobierno y la academia fue capaz de articular comunidad científica nacional e internacional, gestores públicos, sociedad civil, con resultados significativos en el ámbito académico y de políticas públicas en seguridad alimentaria y nutricional. Palavras chave: Seguridad Alimentaria y NutricionalThis work evaluates the structure, links and general indicators of the formation of an Academic Network through inductive projects of Food and Nutrition Sovereignty and Security that were developed in Brazil in the period from 2013 to 2016. The basic principles of the Social Network Analysis method were embraced to understand the interactions between the participating institutions of the projects. The results showed that the southeast and south regions gathered the highest number of projects, exposing a characteristic distribution of academic production in these areas of knowledge. The network analysis revealed a growing density of organizations where many countries joined incrementally, meaning that new members found it easy to connect to the network. The centralization further revealed the connection of the network, during the analyzed period, was clearly connected thanks to the central role played by the technical-executive coordination at the governmental level supported by an academic institution. Thus, this centralized network based on the shared coordination between the government and the academy was able to articulate national and international scientific community, public managers, civil society, with significant results in the academic field and public policies in food and nutrition security.

En el marco de la pandemia ocasionada por la COVID-19, en el mes de marzo del año en curso, la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, desde el Observatorio de Soberanía Alimentaria y Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional, y la Universidad del Atlántico, desde su Maestría en Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional, generaron sendos comunicados a la opinión pública en los que se hace un llamado a la movilización de la academia frente a las repercusiones de la COVID-19, anunciadas en las ya críticas cifras de inseguridad alimentaria y nutricional (INSAN) del país. Estas universidades expresaron, además, la urgente necesidad de sinergias para enfrentar la profundización de las situaciones de inequidad que la pandemia está evidenciando de manera acelerada. En Colombia, según cifras oficiales de la Encuesta de Situación Nutricional (ENSIN) del año 2015, el54,20 % de la población del país, es decir, uno de cada dos hogares, se encuentra en INSAN (1).