Supermarket gondolas are mutating in the country.
And prices are not the only ones that change.
More and more packages appear with
black seals
that warn about "Excess in sugars"; "Excess in sodium";
“Excess in saturated fat”, “Excess in calories” and “Excess in total fat”.
Along with these constant replacements and the nutritional certainty "by the drop" brought by the
Law on Frontal Food Labeling
, there are at least
three obvious confusions
when filling the little monkey.
Clarín
consulted nutrition experts who were linked to the debate on the norm and others who are today directly related to the supervision of its implementation, to answer the new questions.
"I found it extremely shocking to see the cheese gondola full of stamps, even the skimmed ones.
There are fries that have two stamps against cheeses that have 4.
The effect of the law is contradictory at this point. You eat a cheese feeling the worst of the I always paid attention to labels but now it's a hassle to choose what to buy because there are things that have stamps and others don't: on Wednesday I spent 10 minutes analyzing which of all the broths had less sodium," says Alejandra, a 46-year-old from Buenos Aires. years, which today continues to guide with the
"classic" nutritional table
(the square behind the packaging) to define your purchase.
New codes to understand which soft drink is the one in the gondola.
The same thing happens to Mariela, 37, but with yogurt.
And that she considers herself a
lifelong
label analyst .
"I don't know if it seems to me or if they actually did, but I think there are brands that narrowed the back table. So, for those of us who read it, now the law becomes a boomerang for us. It takes me longer to choose because the law
is
illegible nutritional information for yogurt," he says.
Cheese.
Yoghurt.
Broths.
But it can also take several minutes to choose a sugar-free soda.
Before it explicitly said "Without sugar" and today that is prohibited, because "complementary nutritional information" cannot be given.
What is not there is not said.
The regular soda is the one with the "Excess in sugars" and "Excess in calories" stamps and the others are the ones that wear the rectangular legends of "Contains sweeteners" and "Contains caffeine", followed by "Not recommended for children, girls and adolescents".
Decision making in front of the gondola became more cumbersome.
Photo: Marcelo Carroll
In addition, this Holy Week we learned that the "surprise" of the name has already been removed from the Kinder egg - since food intended for children is stamped, it cannot contain any attractive incentive - but not from
within
.
This happened because the company relied on the fact that the prohibition in the law covered the labeling, not the constituent part of the product.
To reduce anxiety, all the sources of this note, on one side and on the other of support for the law, clarify that it
is still too early to assess its effect on consumption
.
Just over a month and a half ago, the extension expired for large companies to adapt and, in fact, SMEs
have until August to do so
.
"It's a matter of habit"
, these contrary sources repeat.
But will it be more intuitive later?
"These confusions are what we have noticed for a long time in the entire process of discussing the law. In addition, we see today that the implementation is taking place
without a clear, broad educational campaign
. The doubts, which will continue to appear, are because the law says what NOT to eat but does not say what to eat", emphasizes Sergio Britos, nutritionist and director of the Center for Studies on Food Policies and Economics (CEPEA).
Britos is analyzing the impact of the law in terms of
product reformulations
, which was the maximum objective: for companies to start making healthier foods to avoid seals.
They will have those results after the ultimatum of November 20, when
all the black octagons that have to be
are in the gondolas .
Let's remember that between disparate deadlines and custom extensions, everything is being very gradual.
And that there is
one more grace period
, until May 2024, but only for returnable bottles with lithographed or painted labels.
Confusion 1: the cheese
Cheeses with and without black seals.
Photo: Marcelo Carrol
Going back to cheese, in the country of tambos this food was the protagonist throughout the debate.
It was argued that "Argentines consume little dairy", that "this deficit has an impact on health" and that the seal was going "to further discourage its consumption".
What about the cheese today?
There is confusion.
"Naturally, cheeses have a high fat content. They are nothing more than the concentration of milk, as well as protein and concentrated sodium. So, due to their own condition, they will always have stamps. It even
went
viral the advertising of one that has the high fat and at the same time when reading the ingredients says that it is made with milk with low fat content. The consumer says: What are we left with? Do I buy
or
not buy?
", Britos brand .
It is worth clarifying that neither whole nor skimmed milk will have stamps, nor will natural yogurt.
And that Argentina is one of the countries with the lowest apparent per capita consumption of fluid milk.
At the same time, it is one of the most consumed cheeses worldwide.
Different types of cheeses and labels.
Photo: Marcelo Carrol
The expert details that the
first general confusion
, beyond this product, is due to the effect of the threshold that the law has to stamp a black octagon:
the PAHO Nutrient Profile
.
During the legislative debate, the Argentine Nutrition Society (SAN) questioned this standard, saying that its logic, combined with a graphic representation of black octagons, "has a restrictive sense that leads to discourage the consumption of packaged foods, even some with a good profile nutritional and even recommended by the Dietary Guidelines established by the Ministry of Health of the Nation".
Like cheese.
"That is why many cheeses end up being high in fat, as something inadvisable, when they are not. That's it, the seal is there, but the confusion is because the consumer is not informed or educated in the best interpretation and use of the labeling
to
the time to buy," adds Britos.
At the other end, Andrea Graciano, nutritionist and professor at the University of Buenos Aires who was a UNICEF adviser, tells
Clarín
that "evidence shows that front-end labeling
is more effective in products falsely perceived as healthy."
And that cheese, in many of her light presentations,
she unmasked
.
Confusion 2: mixed products
Graciano also recognizes a
second confusion
in the gondolas: the one that occurs because, so that food is not thrown away, the stock of labeled packages
coexists with the stock that was manufactured before
the stamps became mandatory.
Containers with and without black seals of the same product coexist in the gondola.
"Consumers report confusion or begin to register the seals taking them into account to choose products without octagons, believing that they are healthier and more nutritious.
The problem is the gradual implementation of labeling.
And not all people are aware. So today A food that does not have seals does not strictly mean that it is healthier. It may not have them because it really does not correspond to it, it managed to be reformulated, or it may be that it has obtained an extension, "he warns.
The same products of the same brand are found with and without stamps
.
At the same time, says the specialist, the law only covers processed and ultra-processed products that are not packaged in front of the public and leaves those sold in delicatessens or bakeries without stamps and that would carry them if they were labeled.
Confusion 3: everything has a seal
The
third confusion
, which would persist in the future, has to do with the main criticism of those who opposed octagons as opposed to a nutritional traffic light method or nutriscore.
They said that the gondolas were going to "be all black."
That it was going to be difficult to know what to choose if everything had a stamp.
When the day comes when all the octagons are there and consumers find themselves in front of a gondola with all their products with the octagon, will there be
public policies in line to guide healthy consumption?
Something that this law also establishes.
All with unshaded black seals, making it difficult to choose which packaging.
Photo: Marcelo Carrol
"The current scenario brings some complexity. Confusion. But when the law is fully implemented it will bring greater clarity. It guarantees the right to have
clear and simple information
, to protect children from misleading marketing, to school environments.
Real foods are not going to have a label.
The idea is to be informed of what is in excess and what is not. And that more products without labels are chosen. Of course
There is a lack of public policies that not only regulate but also
encourage the consumption of natural, not ultra-processed foods,"
Ana Cáceres, president of the Argentine Federation of Nutrition Graduates (FAGRAN),
told
Clarín .
Together with the National Ministry of Health, at the end of the year that federation will present the first details on the impact of the law, but also on the side of food reformulations, not from the consumption habit.
In this confusing "window period", according to Cáceres, there are industries, as is the case with some soft drinks and other cylindrical containers, that play with the existence of a "double front" to hide the seals.
"That is also confusing. And consumers have the right to
claim and demand that compliance with the law be audited and monitored
," he closes.
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