Thru an awareness campaign, the Healthy Eating Movement and the Panama Alliance requested the National Assembly to discuss the bill on front labeling.

Bill 402, which establishes the mandatory nutritional labeling of all food nationwide, is on the agenda to be discussed in the first debate by the Commission on Labor, Health, and Social Development.

Betty Cruzado, General Director of the Healthy Eating Movement Foundation, urged the National Assembly to discuss this bill, presented by Deputy Jairo Salazar, providing clear and simple information for consumers, who are the ones that should choose what they consume.

He explained that this regulation is necessary because, as consumers, we are misinformed about the products we consume, especially those that claim to be dairy products but are not. “Panama does not have any labeling law, not even at the nutritional, general, or front level, which is the one that helps consumers decide whether to purchase them or not,” Cruzado pointed out.

In that sense, the deputy and first vise president of the Legislative body, Manuel Cohen Salerno, stated that this is a positive project because it prevents and warns consumers about the harm a product can cause and the precautions they should take when consuming it, especially when it contains excess sugar and fat.

The objective of the initiative is to promote healthy eating and protect the health of the population by supporting the national health system.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a 30-day procedural notice on its plans to conduct a study entitled “Quantitative Research on Front of Package Labeling on Packaged Foods.” The study is a follow up to focus groups conducted in 2022 to further explore consumer responses to various front-of-package labeling schemes. As part of the Paperwork Reduction Act, federal agencies are required to publish a notice in the Federal Register on each proposed information collection to give the public the opportunity to comment.

The FDA is conducting this consumer research to help explore the development of a front-of-package labeling scheme, which is part of the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, issued as part of the White House Conference held in September 2022 focused on ending hunger and reducing diet-related disease. Front-of-package labeling is intended to complement the Nutrition Facts label on packaged foods by giving consumers additional context to help them identify healthier food selections. A standardized, science-based scheme could help consumers, particularly those with less nutrition knowledge, quickly and easily identify foods that can help them build a healthy eating pattern. The experiences of countries worldwide that have adopted front-of-package labeling suggest that such labeling may help nutrition comprehension and the ability to make healthier choices.