The ungrouped congressman Alex Flores Ramirez has proposed a new modification to Law 30021, Healthy Eating Law, so that processed foods with an area less than 50 square centimeters must have octagons. Precisely the sweets, cookies and wafers, among other sweets that children consume, are those that are marketed in small packages, so they do not carry such warnings, even though they are high in sodium, sugar, saturated fats or contain trans fats. .
In this way, with bill 6461, the aim is to modify article 10 of Law 30021, which would be worded as follows:
It is proposed to modify article 10 of the Healthy Eating Law that requires the use of octagons for processed foods. Source: Congress of the Republic
In the region, Chile places warnings on products that have a dimension of 30 cm2 and is larger as the product is larger; In Mexico, seals are placed on packages with areas equal to or less than 40 cm²; in Argentina, it is established that packages with an area equal to or less than 10 cm² must carry microseals. In Colombia and Uruguay there is also regulation in this regard, according to the document presented.
The objective of the initiative, as stated, is that children and adolescents, as well as those responsible for them, have access to the clearest and most understandable information regarding the products they consume, “to avoid falling into advertising deceptions.” In this way, we seek to combat the risk that more of the population will be affected by diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, among others, in the long term.
It should be noted that Congress recently approved a modification to this law allowing imported products and those manufactured by mypes to have the octagons on adhesives, which specialists and former Ministers of Health have considered a weakening of the norm. The lawyer Jaime Delgado, He pointed out that the measure is an “absurd” even though it is promoted as strengthening the law, since in reality it only seeks to benefit a business sector.
“Who is supervising that the labels do not come off? The funny thing is that Congress touts this law as reinforcing the healthy eating law. What a joke! Because this law has been in force for 4 years and the majority of companies that import products already require foreign producers to place the corresponding warnings, the same thing Peruvian companies do when they send their products abroad,” he said in a TikTok video.
Legislator Flores’ initiative must still be studied and debated in committees before reaching the Plenary Session for evaluation and voting.
Source: Larepublica
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