New technical requirements for nutrition labeling in packaged foods: overview of reviews

• Autor(a) principal: Estevas da Silva Pereira, Ana Carolina
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Rocha Gonçalves, Mônica, Silva, Erica Tatiane, Elias, Flavia Tavares Silva
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Vigilância Sanitária em Debate
• Texto Completo: https://visaemdebate.incqs.fiocruz.br/index.php/visaemdebate/article/view/1607
• topic: Rotulagem de Alimentos; Obesidade; Overview; Food Labeling; Obesity; Overview

Introduction: Personal food preferences, purchasing decisions and eating behaviors are shaped by price, marketing, availability and accessibility, which are influenced by health policies and regulations. The National Health Surveillance Agency in Brazil (Anvisa) published in 2009 a public consultation on the proposal for a Normative Instruction that establishes the technical requirements for declaring nutrition labeling in packaged foods. However, the path through which a legislative proposal is implemented is permeated by several possibilities, being subject to disputes by interest groups, such as consumers and food companies. Objective: to carry out a comparison between the new technical requirements for declaring nutrition labeling in packaged foods with the literature on the standardization of food labels and the effects on the influence on the population’s food choices. Method: An overview of systematic reviews was conducted to carry out a comparative study between the scientific evidence and the new technical requirements for declaring nutrition labeling proposed by Anvisa. Results: Of the 99 studies identified, six systematic reviews, published from 2011 to  2018, were included. The reviews reported positive results in the presentation of nutritional information on food labels, especially when dealing with healthy choices by consumers. Based on this outcome, Anvisa’s regulation follows international labeling standards so that consumers can have more information, which favors the promotion of healthy food choices. Conclusions: The Public Consultation on nutritional labeling of foods is based on the interventions studied and on the current evidence, which ensures reliability for decision-making by the Ministry of Health and Anvisa.