Nutritional information on the labels of processed and ultra-processed foods and beverages marketed in a supermarket chain in Lima in 2022.

Abstract

Objectives.: Motivation for the study. Peruvian Law No. 30021 establishes the use of warning octagons for foods with high content of critical nutrients (sugar, sodium, saturated and trans fats); however, the declaration of nutritional information is not mandatory. Main findings. Of a total of 4404 processed and ultra-processed foods marketed in supermarkets in Lima, only 71.4% declared some type of nutritional information. In addition, only 46.0% declared information on the content of critical nutrients regulated by Law No. 30021. Implications. There is a need for a mandatory and standardized declaration of nutritional information on packaged foods marketed in Peru, in order to allow the population to make healthy decisions when choosing their food and to monitor the correct use of warning octagons. . To estimate the number of processed and ultra-processed beverages and foods that provide nutritional information on their packaging, and to describe the characteristics of this information, as well as to determine the presence of nutritional information on products with octagons.

Materials and methods.: Photographs were taken of the labels of 4404 processed and ultra-processed beverages and foods marketed in supermarkets in Metropolitan Lima. The information on the label was collected and registered in the mobile and web version of the Food Label Information Program (FLIP). We analyzed variables related to the nutritional information, the way in which such information is declared and the information in beverages and foods with octagons.

Results.: Only 71.4% of the products had some type of nutritional information. Of these, 13.8% provided the nutritional information as a text and not in a table, and only 56.3% declared it per 100 grams or milliliters. Of the total number of foods with the octagon "Contains trans fats", only 19.2% declared their content.

Conclusions.: More than a quarter of the beverages and packaged foods in the Peruvian market did not provide nutritional information of any kind, and of those that did, only one did so in different formats and units. In addition, we found that a proportion of beverages and foods for each type of octagon did not declare information of the nutrient that is mentioned in the octagon.