The effects of the Chilean food package policy on aggregate employment and real wages

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Authors: Guillermo Paraje / Arantxa Colchero / Juan Marcos Wlasiuk / Antonio Martner Sota / Barry M. Popkin

January 2021 – In 2016 the Chilean government instituted the world’s most aggressive food policy package to prevent obesity and nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases. The package included comprehensive integrated policies on child marketing, school-related controls, and front-of-package warning labels for foods and beverages high in saturated fats, sugars, calories, and/or salt. This study assesses the impact of these policies on labor market outcomes (real wages and aggregate employment) after 18 months. Our results show that aggregate employment and average real wages were not affected by these regulations when compared to sectors unlikely to be affected by the policies. The study finds that sectors in which products are subject to labeling may have seen a decline in production but show no reduction in employment on aggregate. These results are consistent with evidence from research on the influence of other types of regulations (for example, how taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages affect employment) in other countries and cast doubts on the concerns that firms commonly raise about the negative impact of such regulations on labor market outcomes.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919220302220?via%3Dihub

Front of Package Nutritional Labelling

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Authors: Health Secretary Argentina, Ministry of Health and Social Development Argentina

November 2018 – This report on front of package nutritional labels was prepared by the National Program on Health Eating and Prevention of Obesity of the Ministry of Health based on a bibliographic review of the subject and an intersectoral discussion table convened within the framework of the National Commission for Healthy Eating and Obesity Prevention coordinated by the National Directorate of Health Promotion and Control of Non-communicable Chronic Diseases of the Ministry of Health of the Government.

https://cesni-biblioteca.org/archivos/etiquetado-frontal.pdf

Front-of-package labeling as a policy tool for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases in the Americas

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Authors: Pan America Health Organization

September 2020 – High blood pressure, high fasting blood sugar levels, and overweight/obesity are the top three risk factors for mortality in the Americas. Unhealthy eating is closely linked to these top three risk factors in the Americas. The regulatory objective of a FOPL system should aim at allowing consumers to correctly, quickly, and easily identify products that contain excessive amount of sugars, total fats, saturated fats, trans fats, and sodium.

https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/52740

Responses to the Chilean law of food labeling and advertising: exploring knowledge, perceptions and behaviors of mothers of young children

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Authors: Teresa Correa; Camila Fierro; Marcela Reyes; Francesca R. Dillman Carpentier; Lindsey Smith Taillie; Camila Corvalan

2019 –

In line with calls for action from international health organizations, Chile implemented in June 2016 a set of regulations to tackle the obesity epidemic. The new regulation includes the mandatory use of front-of-package warning labels on packaged foods/beverages high in energy, sugars, saturated fats and sodium. Additionally, such foods cannot be sold nor offered in daycare/schools and cannot be promoted to children under 14yo. The law is targeted to children; thus, this study examined mothers’ understanding, perceptions, and behaviors associated with the regulation one year after its implementation, using a qualitative approach.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-019-0781-x