The National Institute of Food and Nutrition (INAN in Spanish) published the public consultation on: Draft Resolution of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare, which approves the MODIFICATION OF RESOLUTIONS GMC No. 53/98, 54/98, 07/06 AND 08/06 ON FOOD ADDITIVES and the MERCOSUR TECHNICAL REGULATION ON DEFINITIONS RELATED TO ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES (EXCEPT FOR FERMENTED THOSE), THEIR RAW MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING PROCESSES (REPEAL OF GMC RESOLUTION No. 77/94).
Month: September 2023
Article/Peru – Nutritional information on the labels of processed and ultra-processed foods and beverages marketed in a supermarket chain in Lima in 2022
Objectives.
To estimate the number of processed and ultra-processed beverages and foods that provide nutritional information on their packaging, and to describe the characteristics of this information, as well as to determine the presence of nutritional information on products with octagons.
Materials and methods.
Photographs were taken of the labels of 4404 processed and ultra-processed beverages and foods marketed in supermarkets in Metropolitan Lima. The information on the label was collected and registered in the mobile and web version of the Food Label Information Program (FLIP). We analyzed variables related to the nutritional information, the way in which such information is declared and the information in beverages and foods with octagons.
Results.
Only 71.4% of the products had some type of nutritional information. Of these, 13.8% provided the nutritional information as a text and not in a table, and only 56.3% declared it per 100 grams or milliliters. Of the total number of foods with the octagon “Contains trans fats”, only 19.2% declared their content.
Conclusions.
More than a quarter of the beverages and packaged foods in the Peruvian market did not provide nutritional information of any kind, and of those that did, only one did so in different formats and units. In addition, we found that a proportion of beverages and foods for each type of octagon did not declare information of the nutrient that is mentioned in the octagon.
Peru – INACAL approves technical standards for meat, fish and corn glucose products
The Ministry of Production (Produce) approved through Directorial Resolution No. 011-2023-INACAL/DN a series of Peruvian technical standards developed under the coordination of National Quality Institute (INACAL in Spanish). The Resolution updates product standards for food additives, agriculture, livestock, forestry and fisheries.
Article/Brazil – The end of the human right to adequate food and nutrition
In front of the relevant theme of the right to adequate food and nutrition, we seek, through bibliographical and documental research, to understand its complexity and its framework as a fundamental human right, according to a critical, plural and counter-hegemonic perspective. The relevance of the theme is based on the serious state of food insecurity that permeates, in particular, the Brazilian reality, requiring understanding the complexity of the concept of the right to adequate food and nutrition, its normative prescriptions and food sovereignty. The main objective is to critically and counter-hegemonically understand the human right to adequate food and nutrition. Specific objectives are to investigate: (1) the foundations of the human right to adequate food and nutrition; (2) the normative provisions guaranteeing the right under study; and (3) the critical reading of human rights and their relationship with the right to adequate food and nutrition. As for the methodology, bibliographical and documentary research is used, starting from dialectical historical materialism and the critical theory of human rights. It’s concludes that the effectiveness of the human rights to adequate food and nutrition goes through food sovereignty, in the sense of providing not only food, but culturally adequate food for the uniqueness of the population being treated, according to a critical view of this right as a human right.
Argentina – New requirements on sanitary authorization for establishments that manufacture, fractionate or deposit food packaging and utensils in contact with food
The Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and Secretariat of Health Quality has published Joint Resolution 20/2023 to include Article 1416 quater to the Argentine Food Code. “Article 1416 quater: The competent Health Authorities shall apply the provisions contained in the Annex that, registered under No. IF-2020-82640169-APN-DLEIAER#ANMAT, is part of this article for the sanitary authorization of establishments that manufacture, fractionate or deposit food containers and utensils in contact with food.”
A period of 1 year will be granted for the adequacy.
infoAlimentario 