Effectiveness of Legal Instruments for Food Improvemen: The Nutritional Traffic Light in Ecuador and The Chilean Warning Label
Ecuador
Jun 27, 2022

In 2014 in Ecuador, it was promulgated a legal instrument that creates the obligation for processed foods to carry a label in the form of a traffic light that allows to know nutritional quality of a product to be reported at a single look. In Chile in 2016, it was promulgated similar legal instrument: “Ley Sobre Composición Nutricional de los Alimentos y su Publicidad” which requires that processed foods bear a label with a warning, for both legal instruments were analyzed their effectiveness through the change in consumer behavior in the consumption of sugary drinks. For Ecuador, the following data were taken: the income from taxes on soft drinks, and the tax on plastic bottles for single use; finding that, in Ecuador, that after the enactment of the Labeling Regulation there is no change in consumer behavior. In Chile, the income from taxes on non-alcoholic beverages was taken as an indicator, finding that, after the enactment of the Food Law (2016), It was no change observed in consumer behavior.