Caribbean – CARPHA Urges Action on Excessive Salt Intake as Hypertension and Heart Disease Rise Across the Region

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The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) continues to support regional strategies for noncommunicable disease (NCD) prevention, including sodium reduction initiatives, through collaboration with regional Ministries of Health, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and other regional stakeholders. The Agency provides technical guidance on food labelling, public education campaigns, and surveillance of NCD risk factors, while also engaging in advocacy and research to support evidence-based interventions.

CARPHA introduced the Six-Point Policy Package (6-PPP), a regional framework designed to promote healthier food environments and improve food security in addressing childhood obesity and NCDs. One of the six policy recommendations includes establishing regional standards and time-bound salt reduction targets for specific food product categories. Building on this, CARPHA developed the CESA Regional Sodium Reduction Framework in 2020 to guide national sodium reduction strategies. The framework is built on four pillars using the acronym ‘CESA’: Change the food environment through policies and legislation; Educate the population; Strengthen systems capacity through research, monitoring, and evaluation; and Assess progress.

The Framework envisions a healthier Caribbean population where average salt intake falls below the global target of less than 1 teaspoon or 5 grams per day for adults and even less for children. Supporting this effort, CARPHA also developed Kids Can Cook Too, a recipe book featuring nutritious recipes with little or no added salt, fat, and sugar to encourage healthier eating habits from an early age.

Ecuador – ARCSA publishes modification of the sanitary technical regulations for food processing plants for special diets

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The National Agency for Regulation, Control, and Health Surveillance (ARCSA) thru Resolution ARCSA-DE-2026-015-DASP partially modifies the technical health regulations applicable to food processing plants for special regimes, distribution, marketing, and transportation establishments. The incorporated modifications establish that: after the issuance of a payment order, users have a period of ten days to make the corresponding fee payment, under the warning that the application will be definitively removed from the computer system. Regarding the procedure for rectifying observations within the process of obtaining the health notification, the administrators have a period of twenty days from the respective official notification to correct the submitted documents, allowing a maximum of two rectifications to the initial application before the file is archived.

Establish a term of sixty days for the health authority to carry out the documentary and technical review of the information declared in the applications for registration and modification of health notifications and good manufacturing practice certificates. Likewise, thru the inclusion of the seventh general provision, the institution is empowered to require duly justified supplementary information from the holders during the issuance of certifications or in subsequent control processes, ensuring the full technical compliance of the regulated products.

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Brazil – ANVISA makes available the materials from the sectoral dialog on food ingredient specifications

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The National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA in Portuguese) makes available the recording, presentation, and minutes of the sectoral dialog held on April 29, 2026, in which regulatory proposals related to the specifications of identity, purity, and composition of ingredients authorized for use in food were addressed. More than 700 representatives from different sectors of society attended the event.

The virtual meeting aimed to present the results of the analysis of the contributions received in Public Consultations No. 1324/2025 and No. 1325/2025, as well as to discuss the proposed regulatory approaches and gather additional information from the participants.

During the dialog, central aspects of the proposed Normative Instruction that consolidates ingredient specifications were addressed, including:

  • The delimitation of the scope of the standard, focusing on the ingredients included in the current regulatory lists;
  • The organization of specifications into three categories: approved by Anvisa, based on recognized references, and proprietary;
  • The definition of criteria and procedures to evaluate the equivalence between specifications;
  • The standards for identifying and updating proprietary specifications;
  • The harmonization of ingredient names and the adjustments to the annexs of the draft regulation.

Proposals for amending related regulations were also debated, with a view to regulatory harmonization, including adjustments to RDC No. 243/2018, RDC No. 839/2023, and regulations related to different categories of food.

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Brazil – ANVISA establishes the toxicological classification and reference doses for the active ingredients of pesticides

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The National Health Surveillance Agency of Brazil (Anvisa) has taken a further step in the regulation of pesticides in Brazil by defining a structured strategy to include the toxicological classification of active ingredients in the monograph, according to the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS).

This measure aims to strengthen communication about the dangers and health risks arising from exposure to pesticides, as established by current legislation.

Anvisa (Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency) primarily used data from consolidated international databases, such as those from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and the database published by the European Commission (European Pesticides Database), recognized for their scientific rigor, compliance with the GHS (Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals), transparency, and ease of access to technical information. This approach prioritizes the analysis of toxicological effects with the greatest impact on health, such as endocrine disruption, reproductive toxicity, mutagenicity, and carcinogenicity.

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El Salvador – Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock formalizes strategic plan to strengthen health controls for food and dairy products

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The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has officially launched a comprehensive strategic plan designed to expand and strengthen sanitary controls across the entire food supply chain, with a specific technical emphasis on the dairy subsector. This administrative provision mandates the immediate modernization of state laboratory infrastructure to facilitate the intensification of direct inspections at processing facilities and strategic national import points. The regulatory authority asserts that these actions are imperative to ensure strict compliance with Central American Technical Regulations (RTCA), particularly concerning the identification of chemical and microbiological contaminants, the prevention of adulteration in mass-consumption products, and the rigorous verification of identity and quality standards. Under this new supervision framework, food business operators and economic stakeholders must adapt to significantly more frequent audit regimes covering the full traceability of raw materials, manufacturing conditions, and storage and transport protocols for finished goods. The implementation of advanced analytical capabilities will facilitate the rapid detection of emerging health risks, effectively aligning institutional response parameters with the surveillance standards established by international technical reference organizations. This institutional reinforcement aims to elevate public health safety levels while ensuring that domestic market commercialization does not result in unfair competition based on non-compliance with current safety technical standards. Furthermore, the plan establishes a roadmap for the integration of enhanced monitoring systems to increase oversight throughout the logistical chain. The update of these control and sanitary surveillance powers will be executed progressively throughout the 2026 fiscal cycle, consolidating administrative authority over the integrity of the national food matrix.

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