Snitch label forces food industry to reduce sugar, salt and fat – 03/06/2024 – Cozinha Bruta
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I went to the supermarket and, at the entrance, a huge sign announced a new product: cornflakes, the same but different.
The reformulated version has, according to the manufacturer, 60% less sugar. Sixty percent, folks. It’s no small feat.
Then I open the Folha website and read the following news: “Brazilians are scared by the high sugar, fat and salt content in their food after new labeling”.
Apparently, not only the consumer was scared. The food industry is also in a slight panic over new labeling rules, phased in since last year.
The law requires a clearly displayed warning, in the form of a magnifying glass, that denounces products with an excess of salt, sugar and saturated fats.
The research cited in the article shows that 46% of people who noticed the warnings (56% of the total) gave up on purchasing or will reduce their consumption of these items.
The movement may have reduced the sale of some ultra-processed products. Breakfast cereals, the cornflakes category, had the biggest drop: 5.9%, in a survey that compares the period from October 2023 to January 2024 with the same period in the previous year.
In addition to Kellog’s Cornflakes, sugar was also reduced by 60% in Nestlé’s Nescau cereal. The original versions are still on sale: in cornflakes, sugar accounts for 40% of the total mass; in Nescau, it is 30%.
According to the report, Danone also avoided the magnifying glass by reducing the sugar in the Danette dairy dessert.
The reaction of manufacturers attests that the change in labeling is achieving its objective: forcing the industry to offer less unhealthy products so as not to lose money.
Golaço from Idec (Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection), which was involved in the pressure to change packaging legislation – something that the giants in the food sector, obviously, did not want to do.
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