NAFTA Negotiations and Clearer Labeling In Junk Food

NAFTA negotiations are underway, and set to finalize soon. One of the topics at stake is labeling in processed foods, and it could have a major impact in public health (or not).

Transcript:
In the NAFTA negotiations, clearer labeling for junk food is one of the topics at stake.

As obesity continues to be a major concern, Mexico and Canada want to implement more transparent labeling in processed foods. What these proposed regulations aim to do is illustrate the dangers of unhealthy foods, as clear as possible. Similar to those in Chile, labels would feature prominent messages such as “high in added sugars” in the front of the packaging. However, the United States isn’t too pleased with the idea. The main fear is that it could affect sales for American manufacturers.

According to research, current labeling practices aren’t doing the job. Both in Canada and in Mexico, the majority of the population can’t decipher nutrition data. Apart from that, The World Health Organization (WHO) has advised that Mexico passes regulations to help combat diabetes. These explicit health warnings in unhealthy foods could serve as a viable option. They’re often compared to the warnings implemented in cigarettes, which have been widely regarded as effective. What do you think?

Sources:

• https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/us-wants-block-canada-and-mexico-putting-explicit-warnings-junk-food.html
• https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/world/americas/nafta-food-labels-obesity.html
• https://www.vox.com/2018/3/24/17152144/canada-wants-clearer-warnings-on-junk-food-the-us-is-using-nafta-to-stop-them
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndcYGpOx1vs
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23617982
• https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/12/486898630/chile-battles-obesity-with-stop-signs-on-packaged-foods
• https://academic.oup.com/ntr/article/15/3/708/1091051