A draft resolution from the Ministry of Health has raised alarms within the Food Industry Chamber of the National Association of Colombian Businessmen (ANDI). The initiative seeks to implement a new regulatory framework for front-of-pack and nutritional labeling on product packaging. However, according to ANDI, it could have serious effects such as the imposition of technical and economic burdens that would affect the stability of the sector, made up of 51,200 companies.
98.5% of these companies are micro and small businesses, so the resolution would impact the livelihood of thousands of workers who work daily to ensure the supply of food for Colombians. For this reason, for ANDI, it is “completely inappropriate.”
The industrial association points out several critical aspects of the project, such as the lack of response from the Ministry of Health to ANDI’s request to convene working groups to demonstrate the negative impact that, the association fears, the measure would have, and “the lack of evidence and scientific rigor for its adoption.”
The project includes several sensitive issues for businesses
The Food Industry Chamber of ANDI conducted an analysis indicating that this project would create legal and technical instability for the industry. It would also imply the adoption of a technical barrier to trade for which the requirements demanded both by the World Trade Organization and the Andean Community are not properly supported.
The reason is that, according to ANDI, the change would force the redesign of labels for all packaged foods in the country, compelling massive procedures before regulatory entities such as INVIMA, and would introduce untechnical concepts regarding “ultra-processed” products, creating new warning labels without robust scientific evidence to support them.
Specifically, ANDI warns that the draft resolution addresses several sensitive issues such as:
• Creating a definition of “ultra-processed” that does not exist in any regulation in the world.
• Requiring the inclusion of an “ULTRA-PROCESSED WARNING” for those who use at least one additive described as “chemical and/or industrial biotechnological” or cosmetic.
• Creating micro-labels for small packaging; prohibiting the use of QR codes, which are even referenced in Codex Alimentarius standards.
• Changing visual rules for nutritional tables.
• Expanding restrictions on health claims for any food that carries warning labels.
• Establishing a six-month transition period once published in the Official Gazette, despite the fact that the changes are so substantial that companies will have to completely redo their labels, request exhaustion of existing stock, and carry out calculations, design and printing.
The Chamber has described the restrictions as “disproportionate,” since the project tightens limitations on making health claims on products with warning labels and strengthens visual rules for nutritional tables and micro-labels on small packaging.
“This new technical regulation is not properly justified; it is being made without the scientific evidence that must support such a profound change as this,” said Camilo Montes, Executive Director of the Food Industry Chamber of ANDI. “It is essential that the Government listen to those who produce food in Colombia, since the real impact of this measure on companies has not been measured. It will affect the food industry and generate unnecessary additional costs in food production and supply for Colombians.”
The Ministry of Health is making this change despite the fact that Colombia already has a front-of-pack labeling model, regulated through Resolution 810 of 2021, and recently modified through Resolution 2492 of 2022 and Resolution 254 of 2023.
In less than three years, the most recent modification by the Ministry of Health intends to repeal this regulatory framework and issue a new resolution, without having carried out the ex post evaluation required by Colombian regulations (Decree 1074 of 2015 as amended by Decree 1468 of 2020) and in complete contradiction with the good regulatory practices to which the country committed under the OECD and which the National Planning Department has set out in various guidelines.