Gastón Ares1, Lucía Antúnez1, Magela Cabrera2, Anne Marie Thow3. 1. Instituto Polo Tecnológico de Pando, Facultad de Química, Universidad de la República, By Pass de Rutas 8 y 101 s/n Pando, Canelones, CP91000, Uruguay. 2. Instituto de Información, Facultad de Información y Comunicación, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, CP, Uruguay. 3. Menzies Centre for Health Policy, School of Public Health, Charles Perkins Centre (D17), The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To analyse the process for the development and implementation of mandatory nutritional warning labels in Uruguay, in order to inform future nutrition policy making and strategic engagement by public health actors. DESIGN: The study design drew on policy analysis methodology and case study research methodology. Two main sources of information were selected and analysed for the current study: eighteen official documents from the Uruguayan government and 259 news reports, published between June 2017 and February 2021. SETTING: Uruguay, Latin America. RESULTS: The Uruguayan Ministry of Public Health led a cross-sectoral working group composed of diverse governmental stakeholders, international organisations and the academia to develop the front-of-package nutrition labelling policy. A robust evidence-based approach, based on rigorous scientific knowledge generated in the country, was followed. However, changes in the systemic governing coalition as a consequence of a change in government led to a delay in the entry into force and changes in the regulation. The food industry was the main opponent to the warning label regulation and relied on widely reported corporate political activities to influence the policy process: information and messaging, legal action, policy substitution, opposition, fragmentation and destabilisation. CONCLUSIONS: Key insights to inform future policy action in Uruguay and other jurisdictions were derived. Results stressed the importance of an evidence-based approach for policy design and the early engagement with actors from all the political system.
OBJECTIVE: To analyse the process for the development and implementation of mandatory nutritional warning labels in Uruguay, in order to inform future nutrition policy making and strategic engagement by public health actors. DESIGN: The study design drew on policy analysis methodology and case study research methodology. Two main sources of information were selected and analysed for the current study: eighteen official documents from the Uruguayan government and 259 news reports, published between June 2017 and February 2021. SETTING: Uruguay, Latin America. RESULTS: The Uruguayan Ministry of Public Health led a cross-sectoral working group composed of diverse governmental stakeholders, international organisations and the academia to develop the front-of-package nutrition labelling policy. A robust evidence-based approach, based on rigorous scientific knowledge generated in the country, was followed. However, changes in the systemic governing coalition as a consequence of a change in government led to a delay in the entry into force and changes in the regulation. The food industry was the main opponent to the warning label regulation and relied on widely reported corporate political activities to influence the policy process: information and messaging, legal action, policy substitution, opposition, fragmentation and destabilisation. CONCLUSIONS: Key insights to inform future policy action in Uruguay and other jurisdictions were derived. Results stressed the importance of an evidence-based approach for policy design and the early engagement with actors from all the political system.
Entities:
Keywords:
Front-of-package; corporate political activity; nutrition labelling; policy making; regulation
Authors: Tailane Scapin; Ana Carolina Fernandes; Maria Shahid; Simone Pettigrew; Neha Khandpur; Greyce Luci Bernardo; Paula Lazzarin Uggioni; Rossana Pacheco da Costa Proença Journal: Front Nutr Date: 2022-06-16