Implementing a Food Labeling and Marketing Law in Chile

Abstract

In 2012, Chile passed a law intended to reduce obesity in the country. It included several novel features, such as a front-of-package label, limitations to marketing and advertising, and policies targeting schools. The law required the creation of a regulation to address its implementation. Between 2012 and 2015, a process was carried out to generate this regulation that finally came into force in June 2016. This process confronted several difficulties: the involvement of multiple actors, political changes in national government, and endless negotiations to define the operational details of the regulation. The end result was one of the most discussed health policies of recent years in Chile. This article tells the story of the process defining this regulation, carried out between 2012 and 2015. It describes its evolution from a legal perspective but also reveals the trade-offs faced by the team in charge of providing the operational definitions for the implementation of the law. The article presents the main challenges as well the strategies used by the team at the Ministry of Health to overcome the many difficulties that arose during the process of implementing Chile's food labeling and marketing law. The experience of the Chilean reform may provide practical information and lessons for other countries and policy makers embarking on the task of preventing and reducing obesity. Although the Chilean experience has its own particularities, it also suggests common difficulties for similar reform processes in terms of technical challenges-such as the definition of concepts and the scope of regulation-and political challenges-like the opposition of the food industry and conflicts of interest among governmental institutions.

The role of food packaging on children's diet: Insights for the design of comprehensive regulations to encourage healthier eating habits in childhood and beyond

“…Despite the challenges, international experience shows that it is possible to put forward comprehensive food packaging regulations to protect children from the deleterious effects of marketing. Development of acceptable and effective regulations require engagement of multisectoral stakeholders, including governmental stakeholders, international public health organizations, civil society and the academia (Campos & Reich, 2019;Kelly & Jewel, 2018;Villalobos Dintrans et al, 2020). Considering that packaging regulations are both health and trade policies, strategic engagement of economic policy actors early in the process is recommended (Ares, Antúnez, & Curutchet et al, 2021).…”

“…Considering that packaging regulations are both health and trade policies, strategic engagement of economic policy actors early in the process is recommended (Ares, Antúnez, & Curutchet et al, 2021). In addition, experience from Uruguay and Chile stress the importance of involving actors from all the political system to achieve effective and stable policies (Ares, Antúnez, & Curutchet et al, 2021;Villalobos Dintrans et al, 2020). Another key issue for the development of effective policies is reliance on a robust evidence-based approach (Head, 2010), as well as local formative research (Kelly & Jewell, 2019).…”

Implementation of childhood obesity prevention and control policies in the United States and Latin America: Lessons for cross‐border research and practice

“…Governmental and academic reports have described the process of developing front‐of‐food pack labeling (FOPL) legislation, the degree of implementation, and its impact evaluation after the first phase of implementation. 4 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 Of note is that the FOPL policy was implemented together with comprehensive marketing restrictions to children under 14 years old and the prohibition to sell or provide regulated foods and beverages at early child care and education centers and schools 9 (Table S1 ).…”

Implementación de políticas de prevención y control de la obesidad infantil en Estados Unidos y Latinoamérica: lecciones para la investigación y la práctica transfronterizas

“…Otro criterio fue que existiera la información necesaria para preparar estudios de casos ilustrativos, incluido el acceso a documentos de política y a informadores clave. informes gubernamentales y académicos que describen el desarrollo de esta ley, el grado de aplicación y la evaluación de su impacto tras la primera fase 4,[12][13][14][15] . Es de destacar que la política del EFAE entró en vigor junto a un numeroso grupo de normas que restringían la publicidad dirigida a los menores de 14 años y prohibían vender o facilitar determinados alimentos y bebidas en las guarderías, centros de educación infantil y escuelas 9 (Tabla S1).…”