According to a new study published in Public Health Nutrition, the political strategies of food industry actors in Colombia may have negatively influenced the development of a new front-of-pack nutrition labeling in the country, thus delaying the introduction of the measure to prevent and reduce diseases and deaths amongst the Colombian population.

The study recently appeared in the scientific journal Public Health Nutrition. The lead author, Dr. Mélissa Mialon, explains “the food industry in Colombia has been pushing against the adoption of warning labels on food products, a globally renowned front-of-pack nutrition labeling system already adopted in several other countries like Chile, Uruguay and Mexico.”

In 2019, the researchers conducted a document analysis and interviewed key stakeholders from the government, academia, civil society and the media. The analysis included some of the most prominent actors from global food industry companies, such as McDonalds, Nestlé and PepsiCo and Colombian food manufacturers such as Grupo Nutresa, Postobon, Colanta and Alpina. The study also focused on industry trade associations and other front groups.

“Food industry actors were present in the Congress, and were supported, in some instances by government agencies such as the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture, our interviewees told us.”, according to Dr. Mialon. The authors of the study noted the many links between policy makers and the food industry, which may have facilitated their lobbying.

Dr Mialon explained that food industry actors discredited the use of warning labels and used experts to defend their position in the Congress, without being transparent about these relationships. The International Life Science Institute (ILSI), a food industry front group, organised two workshops in 2019 to push for their preferred labeling system. One targeted at the Faculty of Sciences of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, with speakers from the food industry, and one during the annual congress of the Colombian Association of Dietetics and Nutrition.

The authors noted that food industry actors also launched the “Alliance for Child Nutrition” in the presence of the first lady of Colombia, right when the introduction of warning labels on food products was discussed in Congress. The aim of the Alliance was to combat malnutrition in Colombia, and included partnerships with the Ministry of Health, the Presidential Council for Children and Adolescents and the National Association of Neonatology. This may have served to shift the attention away from the role that food industry actors have on the food system and rather present them as good corporate citizens.

The last author of the study, Dr Perez, explains that, although all these strategies are perfectly legal, it is important to question the lobbying and other subtle practices of the food industry, as these may have delayed the adoption of public health policies in the country.

The research paper titled ‘‘I had never seen so many lobbyists’: food industry political practices during the development of a new nutrition front-of-pack labelling system in Colombia’ is available online here.