Highlights The experiences of Uruguayan families during the COVID-19 pandemic were explored. The pandemic elicited negative feelings in the majority of participants. Social distancing measures caused a major disruption in daily habits. Changes in children's mood and behavior were perceived by the majority of the participants. Participants from low socio-economic level faced more difficulties to cope with social distancing. Positive changes in some families were identified in terms of family relationships and eating patterns.

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Objective: To assess the effects of nutritional warnings during the first month after the date of full compliance by the food industry in Uruguay in terms of citizen awareness, self-reported use and ability to understand nutritional information. Design: The present work encompassed two online studies, conducted before (Study 1) and during the first month after the date of full compliance by the food industry (Study 2). An after-only design was used to assess awareness of the policy, exposure to nutritional warnings on food packages and self-reported use of warnings for making purchase decisions in Study 2. An after-only with control group experimental design was used to assess the effect of nutritional warnings on understanding of nutrition information in Studies 1 and 2. Setting: Uruguay, one of the Latin American countries, that has recently implemented nutritional warnings. Participants: A non-probabilistic sample of 1772 participants was recruited using Facebook advertisements targeted at Uruguayan adult users. Results: High awareness and self-reported use of nutritional warnings during the first month after the date of full compliance in Uruguay were observed. In addition, the before and after comparison showed that the implementation of warnings increased citizens’ ability to use nutritional information to compare products and to identify products with excessive content of sugar, fat, saturated fat and sodium. Conclusions: The current study confirms results from experimental studies and provides additional evidence to support the implementation of nutritional warnings as one of the public policies that can contribute to tackle obesity and non-communicable diseases.

We developed a semiquantitative, culturally adapted FFQ to assess dietary intake in children and adolescents in South America. It has an optimal size allowing its completion in a high proportion of the population; therefore, it can be used in epidemiological studies with South American children and adolescents.