Etiquetado de alimentos en Ecuador: implementación, resultados y acciones pendientes

Abstract

Las enfermedades no transmisibles representan la principal causa de muerte en el mundo entero, siendo responsables de 38 millones de las defunciones registradas en 2012. Esta epidemia se asocia, principalmente, al tabaquismo, al consumo excesivo de alcohol, el sedentarismo y cambios en el patrón alimentario, caracterizado por el consumo de dietas con un elevado contenido de azúcar y grasas saturadas, propio de los alimentos procesados y bebidas azucaradas, sumado a una escasa ingesta de frutas y hortalizas. El Ecuador no escapa a ese perfil epidemiológico ni a los cambios en el patrón de consumo de alimentos, por lo cual, el Estado Ecuatoriano diseñó e implementó un plan de acción orientado a modificar el entorno obesogénico, que contempla seis líneas estratégicas, una de las cuales es la implementación de un sistema de etiquetado nutricional tipo semáforo a los alimentos procesados, a finales de 2014, orientado a garantizar el derecho de las personas a la información oportuna, clara, precisa y no engañosa sobre el contenido y características de estos alimentos. El presente artículo analiza el proceso de implementación del etiquetado de alimentos procesados, los resultados alcanzados hasta la fecha y propone medidas complementarias que se requieren para el logro de la meta prevista en el Plan Nacional del Buen Vivir, a la luz de la nueva evidencia científica y los distintos acuerdos y marcos regulatorios disponibles en nuestra Región. La metodología de estudio incluyó revisión bibliográfica y de actas, entrevistas a informantes clave, y análisis y procesamiento de fuentes secundarias.

Evaluation of the Nutritional Quality of Processed Foods in Honduras: Comparison of Three Nutrient Profiles

“…The products that present mostly excess contents of various critical nutrients should be regulated in their offer and their advertising, as some countries have already done, as well as the implementation of frontal labeling, such as in Chile [ 20 ], Ecuador [ 38 ] and France [ 39 ], and thus be able to include dietary guidelines to promote a healthy and balanced diet, allowing the inclusion of prefabricated foods in a healthy and responsible way [ 40 ]. This should include basic studies regarding the consumption of nutrients in the population to identify the existence of a positive impact on the practice of food selection based on its nutritional quality.…”

Comparative Analysis of the Classification of Food Products in the Mexican Market According to Seven Different Nutrient Profiling Systems

“…The seven NPS included in the comparison are: the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) model [ 11 ], the Nutrient Profiling Scoring Criterion (NPSC) model [ 35 ], as well as the NPS used to classify food products by the Australian Health Star Rating (HSR) [ 36 ], the Mexican Nutritional Seal (MNS) [ 37 ], the Chilean Warning Octagons (CWO) (including the 2016 or most permissive, as well as the 2018 and 2019 criteria) [ 25 , 38 , 39 ], and the multiple traffic light model in Ecuador (MTL) [ 39 ]. We also included a profile proposed in 2010 by a Mexican Committee of Nutrition Experts (MCNE,) independent from the food sector [ 40 ]. Details of the criteria for each NPS were reviewed and collected from the official websites and documents ( Table 1 ).…”

Impact of front-of-pack nutrition labels on consumer purchasing intentions: a randomized experiment in low- and middle-income Mexican adults

“…through online shopping simulations) or actual purchases (e.g. using purchase data) among this population [20][21][22][23], with some studies indicating that FOP labels may improve the nutritional quality of consumers' choices [22,23], and others reporting limited or null effects [20,21]. Evidence suggests that nutritional labels may be more effective when supported by measures to promote awareness, understanding and use of such labels [24,25], specifically when considering health-related outcomes [26].…”

“…We used the nutrition criteria established by each of the FOP labels included in our study to assign the labels to food products [23,36,37]. Nonetheless, we used the 2016 Chilean regulations to classify nutrient content as high in the MTL and the WL [37].…”