The Americas

Regulatory news in the Americas

Honduras – Honduran Private Enterprise Council requests COMIECO to issue food labeling regulations

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The Council of Ministers of Economic Integration (COMIECO in Spanish), should be the body in charge of issuing the regional regulation on labeling, the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP in Spanish) said today in a conversation with journalists.
The law under study seeks to label food and beverage products with black seals on the front of the package based on a criterion of the Pan American Health Organization.
“Honduras is part of Central America, therefore, we have to abide by regional regulations,” said COHEP’s executive director, Armando Urtecho, warning of damage to competitiveness, price increases and unemployment, among others, if in Honduras, these regulations are issued via the National Congress.
The private sector has recently asked the opinion commission of the National Congress (CN) to paralyze the discussion of the Front End Labeling Law in order to give the opportunity, as Costa Rica is doing, Guatemala and Nicaragua, for the Committee of the National Congress (CN) to issue the regulation through the National Congress. Guatemala and Nicaragua, that the Comieco, be the one to issue this regional regulation on labeling.

Brazil – Anvisa approves update of the Regulatory Agenda 2024-2025

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The Collegiate Council of the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA in Portuguese) approved, during the 23rd Ordinary Public Assembly of the Agency, the update of the Regulatory Agenda 2024-2025. Based on the consolidated updates, the new list of regulatory topics of the Agenda for the 2024-2025 period now consists of 171 topics, distributed in 16 macro-themes of the Agency’s activities.
Of the 117 topics, 34 are food-related issues.

As foreseen in ANVISA’s Regulatory Agenda Manual, the set of prioritized topics can be reviewed annually, with the possibility of changes, exclusions and inclusions of topics.The objective of the annual update is to keep the document aligned with the regulatory priorities of the period, to ensure predictability and timeliness of the Agency’s regulatory planning.

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Honduras – COHEP asks Congress to shelve the Front End Labeling Law

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The Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP in Spanish), made through a statement the request to shelve the law under study with which they wanted to label some products with a black seal, known as Front Labeling Law.

According to the statement published in social networks: “The Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP) on behalf of the thousands of jobs generated by the private sector in the food and beverage sector asked the National Congress to shelve the proposed front labeling law which was read in first reading last Thursday”.

They also added that: “COHEP’s request is due to the fact that the proposal, presented by the Honorable Vice President of Congress, Kritza Perez, contradicts everything indicated in the Central American technical regulations approved by Honduras within the framework of the Central American Integration System”.

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

Brazil – ANVISA presents the new legislation portal AnvisaLegis

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The portal (AnvisaLegis) will bring together Anvisa’s regulatory standards and all other publications of the regulatory process, such as openings, public consultations, guidelines, regulatory impact analysis reports, among others.

Among the new features is the option of consulting the Agency’s rules, i.e., the Resolutions of the Collegiate Board of Directors (RDC) and the Normative Instructions (IN), according to the thematic areas of action, selecting, for example, the topics of food, cosmetics or medicine, among others. Another facility is to view directly the public consultations that are open to contributions from society.

Brazil – ANVISA develops new advisory panel for approved health claims on foods

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The National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA in Portuguese) published a panel with information on the use of fully recognized health claims on food labeling. For these health claims on certain nutrients, companies will not need to demonstrate their efficacy or submit them to prior analysis in order to include the information on product labeling

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