Report Choices workshop at SLAN

December 7th, 2012

The Latin American Congress of Nutrition (SLAN) was held from 12 to 16 November 2012 in Cuba, with more than 1300 nutrition experts present.

Here, the Choices International Foundation organised a workshop to discuss developments and perspectives in nutrient profiling and food labelling in four major Latin American countries – Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Argentina. As underlined by a study from Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health, the criteria and framework of the Choices Programme are very helpful in shaping policies in these areas. Indeed, the criteria for nutrient profiling in Mexico and Brazil are quite similar to those of the Choices Programme, while Argentina makes full use of these criteria.

During the workshop, which was attended by more than one hundred experts, scientists from the four countries underlined that nutrition scientists and governmental experts are actively discussing what can be done to fight obesity. As Ricardo Uauy, Chairman of Choices’ Latin American Scientific Committee, stated “nutritionists cannot be content with simply going from one congress to another and must actively fight the obesity epidemic affecting our continent. To do so, we need to focus our efforts on food reformulation and labelling”.

The workshop ended with the objective of deepening cooperation and support among Latin American countries so that international trade can continue to thrive. Argentina and Mexico have already taken measures in this direction. In her final comments, Dr. Branka Legetic from the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) also underlined the importance of nutrient profiling in the overall enhancement of nutrition, showcasing the Choices Programme as one of the profiling systems analysed and validated.

Angela Carriedo (National Institute of Public Health [NIPH], Mexico) summed up the Nutrient Profiling and front-of pack labelling situation in Mexico. A complete system of nutrition criteria has been developed, based upon Choices product groups and criteria by the Mexican Scientific Commission. This was done under the leadership of the NIPH and Barry Popkin. Following the change of government, there is renewed opportunity to discuss the implementation of this system with health authorities. Click here for full presentation.

Angela Carriedo also summarized the comparative study that she executed with Diana Ruiz, under the guidance of Annet Roodenburg. The study provides a comparison of the Brazilian and Mexican nutrient profiling product group classifications and nutrition criteria that have been developed, with the product groups and nutrition criteria from the Choices Programme. In addition, the percentage of a selection of food products from the different countries were checked to determine if they comply with the nutrient criteria. Despite certain differences, these product groups and nutrition criteria were quite similar. Click here for full presentation.

Elizabete Wenzel (university of Sao Paulo, Brazil) described her study, in which she checked the compliance of the Choices derived draft Brazilian nutrient profiling criteria against a database of 1720 products on the Brazilian market. In addition, she calculated the impact on food composition when general products in a typical Brazilian diet were substituted with Choices compliant products. The following effects were calculated:

• 52% reduction in SAFA intakes
• 92% reduction in transfat intakes
• 47% reduction in Na intakes
• 14% reduction in energy intakes
• 87% increase in fibre intakes
• Click here for full presentation.

Ricardo Uauy (University of Chile) reported that Chile has already adopted a law on food information. Within this framework, regulation on nutrient profiling has been developed and a technical document with cut-off points for sugar, sodium, energy, trans fat and SAFA  will soon be produced. Products that do not comply with these cut-off points will have to carry a warning: ‘high in X’. This law is currently in its implementation phase. Click here for full presentation.

Flavio Dombrowski (ProDANyS, Buenos Aires, Argentina) explained that ProDANyS brings organisations (industry, ministries, food research, international organisations such as PAHO and Choices) together for research, development and certification of healthy food. As they have concluded that Choices criteria are well adapted to their aim, they are in the process of developing a regional certification scheme for the Buenos Aires Province (20 M inhabitants). There is also a clear ambition to upgrade these criteria to a national level. Next to that, ProDANyS is developing health criteria for the 30,000 daily canteen meals of the nationalized oil company YPF. Click here for full presentation.

Branka Legetic (PAHO): The WHO has developed a global monitoring framework for non-communicable diseases. The nutrition indicators are:

• salt/sodium intake
• energy intake from saturated fat
• consumption of less than 5 portions of fruits/vegetables
• overweight/obesity among adults and among adolescents.

The WHO’s goal for coordinating the nutrient profiling work is to have a coordinated approach for developing (or adapting) nutrient profiling models for use in applications that may be integrated in a coherent public health strategy. The WHO has made a catalogue of developing and validating nutrient profiling models. 118 profiling systems have been collected, of which 63 corresponded to the inclusion criteria. Only 20 of them were validated in any way. The catalogue will be published soon. This overview makes it possible to develop a unified nutrient profile model for regulating the marketing for foods for children in the European Union.

Main attributes of a FOP system are:

• simple, specific knowledge is not needed
• interpretive; nutrient information acts as guidance rather than specific facts
• ordinal, a scaled or ranked approach
• supported by communication, with identifiable symbols or easily-remembered names

In conclusion:

• the problem of nutrition-related diseases does not have a single solution
• a supportive environment can encourage people to make appropriate choices
• FOP labelling should be part of broader effective policies that encourage people to change eating habits
• effective policies should be based on factors that influence population trust in nutrition logo schemes

Click here for full presentation.

Finally: In his concluding remarks, session chairman Ricardo Uauy addressed two top priorities. First is to show to consumers a healthier choice in all food product categories, including processed food. Second is reformulation of existing food products.