The Association of Nutritionists of the Province of Buenos Aires expressed their “deep concern” about what they consider a setback in terms of public health, since the recent amendments to the Law for the Promotion of Healthy Food – better known as the Front Labeling Law – have set off alarm bells among specialists in nutrition and public health. Two provisions of the ANMAT, promoted under the administration of Javier Milei, altered central points of the regulation and, according to professionals, put at risk the right to information and healthy eating. Provisions 11362/2024 and 11378/2024 introduced changes in the calculation of critical nutrients and relaxed controls on food composition and advertising.
One of the most controversial changes is the exclusion of intrinsic nutrients – fats, sugars, sodium and calories naturally present in foods – from the calculation to determine whether a product bears a warning label. From now on, only nutrients added during the production process will be considered.

For Chile to advance towards better health and less obesity, more accountability is needed over the enforcement of existing rules. We also need to do more: establish a “green” card that would allow Chile’s vulnerable populations access to healthy food;  increase physical activity as a requirement in our schools; and raise taxes on harmful products that bear the warning labels.

The greatest pandemic humanity is facing isn’t Covid, it’s obesity. That condition kills around 41 million people annually – 112,000 people a day – through cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, and dementia. Forty thousand of those cases are completely avoidable, since they involve young people. In contrast, Covid caused a total of 8 million deaths over a two-year period.  In addition, obesity causes years lost in terms of healthy lives, increases the need for hospital beds, and results in greater public health expenses.

Less than a week is left for the expiration of the extension requested by large companies to comply with the law on front labeling of food and beverages, which seeks to warn the population on food packaging of excessive components that may be harmful to health, such as sugars, sodium and saturated fats, among others. The regulation was approved in October 2021 and most companies requested extensions to comply, which expire on February 16.