Aspec: “Decision of the Indecopi Chamber on Bimbo is an attack against public health”

The Peruvian Association of Consumers and Users (Aspec) expressed its rejection of the recent Resolution No. 0134-2021 / SDC-INDECOPI adopted by the Specialized Chamber for the Defense of Competition of Indecopi, which annulled a sanction against the company Panificadora Bimbo del Perú SA for marketing white bread without warning advertising “Contains trans fats: Avoid their consumption”, despite the fact that the product did have these oils for Peruvian law

Through a statement, the specialized agency specified that the decision of the highest court that should ensure the welfare of consumers “is an attack against public health.”

“In an absolutely biased and biased way, the aforementioned decision-making body – which is also made up of a person linked to the National Society of Industries (SNI), a union that tenaciously opposed advertising warnings through octagons – has dared to maintain that the Bimbo company should not be sanctioned because the obligation to record the octagon “Contains trans fats: Avoid consumption” is not applicable to it, since, according to the peculiar interpretation of the Chamber, the current legislation has not established the “technical parameters “As for the tolerable percentages of this harmful compound,” the document states.

For Aspec, what the aforementioned decision-making body has not taken into account is that “trans fats, regardless of the amount consumed, are characterized by eliminating good cholesterol and promoting the appearance of bad cholesterol.”

“That is why it does not require a” parameter “and for that same reason, since July 23, 2021, the production, importation and marketing of products containing said compound is prohibited. Therefore, the decision of the Indecopi Chamber, in its eagerness to favor the company, collides head-on with a public health policy that, rather, should contribute to defending, “said the body chaired by Crisologo Cáceres.

Indecopi: there is no legal loophole for Bimbo

Aspec maintains that there is no alleged “loophole” on the subject. On the contrary, Peru has extensive legislation in this regard and, proof of this, are the Healthy Eating Law, its Regulations and its Manual of Advertising Warnings which expressly indicates in relation to the “technical parameters” that, in the unique and specific case of trans fats, they are governed “According to current regulations”, which expressly states that it is necessary to “avoid their consumption”.

“In the supposition denied that there were no standards in relation to the subject, the provisions of the Codex Alimentarius apply but in no way the guidelines of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as whimsically did the aforementioned Indecopi Chamber ”, Send the letter.

Finally, the body concludes that the decision of the Chamber made up of Hooker It is an “attack against public health that now, As the administrative procedure has been exhausted, it can only be questioned before the Judicial Power, delaying the correct application of the law and freeing many products from their obligation to consign the octagons on trans fats ”.

“Therefore, it is expected that the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic, the Public Ministry and Indecopi itself, each within the scope of their respective competences, will investigate this scandalous case and that exemplary sanctions will be imposed on those who are responsible for this undue favor to a company ”, he concludes.