Mexico publishes new manual to guide food companies in labelling regulations
Mexico’s Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS) has published a manual to guide companies in the application of warning labeling for pre-packaged food and non-alcoholic beverages.
As reported in a previous news article, Mexican authorities have introduced new regulations (also known as NOM-051) that obliges producers of pre-packaged food and non-alcoholic beverage to place warning labels on their packages if these products exceed pre-established limits of calories, sodium, fat and sugars. With these regulations, Mexican authorities aim promote healthier diets among the Mexican population. Mexico is currently the country with the second highest obesity rate in the world, which has made its population much more vulnerable to COVID-19.
In order to guide companies in their compliance with NOM-051 (the details of which, according to some, are difficult to understand), the Mexican Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS), an agency under the Ministry of Health, has now published a manual which should make it easier for companies to understand and comply with these regulations. Some examples of the rules laid down in NOM0-051 are:
- Foods that contain one or more sweetener warning stamps must not include child characters, animations, cartoons, celebrities, athletes or pets, nor make reference to non-related elements on the label;
- All ingredients or additives that can cause hypersensitivity, intolerance or allergies such as cereals that contain gluten, peanuts, soy, milk products and dairy derivatives, must be mentioned on the front of the package;
- The label must indicate the name, denomination or company name and fiscal address of the person responsible for the product.
- When the container is covered by a wrapping, all applicable information should be on it, unless the container label can be easily read through the wrapping.