Haiti – The Ministry of Commerce strengthens its actions for consumer protection

05/11/2024 / infoAlimentario

As part of its commitment to ensure optimal consumer protection, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) is stepping up its market control efforts through an extensive inspection operation to be carried out starting in October. 9 to 12, 2024. This initiative affects supermarkets, warehouses in the capital and surrounding communities, where rigorous controls will be carried out on a wide range of products.

Under the direction of Minister James Monazard, more than a dozen newly sworn-in inspectors will carry out inspections to verify several essential aspects: the price of staple products; the quality and condition of the products offered for sale; the storage and conservation conditions of food products, particularly refrigerated and frozen; the labeling and presentation of products in accordance with the standards in force; the proper functioning of sales facilities, including gas stations, to ensure the accuracy of pumps.

For further information, you can access the original source in French

Haiti – Haiti grants 3-month deadline for products to comply with labeling standards

05/11/2024 / infoAlimentario

Haiti’s Ministry of Trade and Industry issued a three-month moratorium for manufacturers, importers and distributors of prepackaged foods to comply with new labeling regulations, which require detailed product information in French or Creole.

“In order to protect consumer rights, we inform the general public and economic operators in particular that, as of January 3, 2025, all local and imported products that do not comply with this regulatory provision will not be authorized for sale,” states communiqué MCI/DCQPC/0018/08/24, issued last September 30.

For further information, you can access the original source in Spanish

Uruguay – New register of food companies, premises, vehicles and products

05/11/2024 / infoAlimentario

As of October 2024, all food companies must register their products, premises and vehicles in a single national registry, facilitating the operation, without having to carry out separate procedures in each department.

Through the Single National Registry of Food, Companies and Vehicles (Runaev in Spanish), companies carry out their procedures in a single access, and local intendancies are in charge of processing applications related to their jurisdiction.

Brazil – Anvisa publishes results of monitoring additives and contaminants in food

05/11/2024 / infoAlimentario

The National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA in Portuguese) published the Food Additives and Contaminants in Food (Promac) Monitoring Program Report for the years 2021 to 2023.

The document presents the results of monitoring the content of food additives – benzoic acid, sorbic acid, bromates, artificial colors, sweeteners, nitrates, nitrites and sulfites – and inorganic and organic contaminants: metals (arsenic, cadmium and lead) and mycotoxins (aflatoxins). (e.g., deoxynivalenol – DON and ochratoxin A).

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Guatemala – Congress demands more actions to eradicate malnutrition

05/11/2024 / infoAlimentario

In the framework of World Food Day, which is commemorated every October 16, the Food Security Commission, led by deputy Jairo Danilo Orellana and accompanied by deputies Marleni Matías Santiago, Mercedes Cristabel Guardado, César Rodas and Mario Velásquez, summoned the Minister of Public Health and Social Assistance (MSPAS) to discuss food security programs in the country.

In the absence of the Minister, Edgar González, Vice-Minister of Regulation, Surveillance and Control, attended the meeting to listen to the legislators’ concerns.

The legislators reaffirmed their commitment to promote actions to eradicate hunger, promote healthy eating and combat malnutrition in Guatemala, as established in the statement of the Congress of the Republic, through Resolution Point 15-2024, approved in the forty-first (41st) Additional Ordinary Session, last Tuesday, October 15.