Chile's Black STOP Sign for Foods High in Fat, Salt or Sugar

Abstract

On 26 June 2015, the Chilean Official Journal published Decree No. 13 of 16 April 2015 (hereinafter Decree 13/2015) amending Decree 977/1996 Reglamento sanitario de los alimentos (hereinafter, the Food Health Regulation, as it is widely referred to in English, although the correct translation would be Food Sanitary Regulation). In particular, Decree 13/2015 requires warning messages in the shape of a black octagon in the form of a STOP sign to be placed on the front-of-pack with the text ‘High in…’ when food products exceed certain levels of energy, sodium, sugars or saturated fats. Although novel in the food sector, Chile's measure is part of a trend of public policies aimed at tackling lifestyle risks by conveying certain information to the public. While warning messages that reduce the visual appeal of the packaging of products are ubiquitous in the tobacco sector, these types of messages are now also gradually being extended to the alcohol and food sectors.

Compared to other front-of-pack nutrition labels, the Nutri-Score emerged as the most efficient to inform Swiss consumers on the nutritional quality of food products

“…After each choice task, participants were asked to rank the set of three products according to their nutritional quality (1-Highest nutritional quality, 2-Medium nutritional quality, and 3-Lowest nutritional quality), with an "I don't know" option also available. The phrasing of the task used relative terms on nutritional quality (highest/medium/lowest) in order to prevent participants from making assumption on (2) a colorcoded label, the Multiple Traffic Lights, implemented in the United Kingdom in 2004, that indicates the amounts of the same nutrients as the RIs, but with a colour associated with each nutrient depending on the amount (green-low, orange-moderate, red-high) [36]; and (3) a warning system, the Warning symbol implemented in Chile in 2016 and then in Peru in 2019, that advises when the level of a given unfavourable nutrient exceeds the limit established by the Chilean Ministry of health [37]. Second, two summary FoPLs were tested: (1) a graded color-coded label, the Nutri-Score, implemented in France in 2017 and later in 2018 in Belgium and Spain, that characterizes the overall nutritional quality of the food or beverage using a graded scale of five colors from dark green (associated with the letter A) to dark orange (associated with the letter E) [17] and (2) a hybrid FoPL, the Health Star Rating system, implemented in Australia and New Zealand in 2014, that combines a graded scale of stars and information on nutrient amounts [38].…”

Effectiveness of Different Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels among Italian Consumers: Results from an Online Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Five FoPLs with different graphical designs were tested in the present study ( Figure S1 [19,22]). Three nutrient-specific schemes were included: (i) the RIs, which provide only numerical information on energy and the content of fats, saturated fats, sugars and salt, including the contribution to the daily reference intakes [13]; (ii) MTL, which provides the same numerical information but with an associated color (red for high contents, orange for medium and green for low contents) [12]; and (iii) the warning symbol, that is applied to foods when the content in energy, saturated fats, sugars or sodium exceeds a specific level [23]. Two summary formats were also tested: (iv) the Nutri-Score, a graded and color-coded scheme characterizing the overall nutritional quality of products, from "A" in dark green for better nutritional quality to "E" in dark orange for lower nutritional quality [15]; and (v) the HSR, a hybrid format that provides information on the nutritional content as in the RIs, as well as a summary graded indicator of the overall nutritional quality of the food, using stars (from 0.5 to 5 stars) [24].…”

Objective Understanding of Front-of-Package Nutrition Labels: An International Comparative Experimental Study across 12 Countries

“…Over the last decade, a number of different types of label designs has been developed, including nutrient-specific labels that display information on the content of a given nutrient and summary labels that provide an assessment of the overall nutritional quality of a given food product. Nutrient-specific labels can be divided into three categories: (i) numeric-only, such as the Reference Intakes (RIs) developed in 2006 and applied internationally by the food industry [ 18 ]; (ii) colour-coded labels, such as the Multiple Traffic Lights (MTL) label that was first implemented in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2005 (with each colour associated with the nutrient amount: red for a high amount, amber for a moderate amount, and green for a low amount) [ 19 ]; and (iii) warning labels, such as the Warning symbol (first implemented in 2016 in Chile [ 20 ]) that advises when the level of a given nutrient exceeds what is considered a healthy amount. Summary FoPLs can be categorised as (i) scale-based graded labels indicating the overall nutritional quality of the product, such as the Nutri-Score adopted in France in 2017 [ 21 ] and the Health Star Rating (HSR) system that first appeared on food packages in Australia in 2014 [ 22 ]; and (ii) endorsement symbols applied only to healthier products in a given food category and based on pre-set limits regarding the level of certain nutrients.…”