Ecuador: 82 percent of the processed foods sold in the country, high levels fat, salt, sugar

Andes.info.ec reported – Quito, November 28 (Andes).- 82% of processed foods sold in Ecuador contain high levels of fat, salt and sugar, and on the other hand, barely 2% of products sold in the country have low levels of those ingredients, reported the Ministry of Public Health as it warns that those critical levels of nutrients are related to obesity, heart conditions, diabetes, cancer and hypertension.

Diana Rodríguez, Director of the Agency for Health Regulation and Control (ARCSA), explained that the new standard for the labeling of processed foods in the country follows a comprehensive policy that seeks to reveal the nutritional information of food on shelves and increase the collective understanding of the nutritional table in the daily diet.
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According to this standard, food products ought to have a front label stating the levels of sugar, fat and sodium, with three types of warnings: red to state high contents; yellow to state medium content; and green for low content on each of these components.

Rodríguez reported that the new standard’s prohibitions include that advertising cannot attest that a product – on its own – fulfills a person’s nutritional requirements; neither is it feasible to make comparisons in detriment of other products; attribute preventive properties or therapeutic action to alleviate, treat or cure an illness or use images of children, adolescents, health professionals or celebrities for publicity.

In the labeling transition process, large and medium size companies will have six months to abide by the labeling system; meantime, small size companies will have a grace period of one year. Manufacturers who don’t abide by the standard will be punished with temporary or definitive suspension of their health registration. The process is free of charge and it doesn’t require changes to the health registrations.

Richard Espinosa, Minister Coordination of Production, emphasized that this system doesn’t intend to stigmatize products, but rather the goal is to reveal the nutritional information of food products. This comprehensive policy

is complemented with campaigns designed to achieve a physically active population and healthy eating.

Sugar consumption

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that each glass of sweetened beverages per day increases in 60% the risk of obesity.

A daily glass of soda increases the risk to develop hypertension, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, an increase in the levels of triglycerides and cholesterol.

Salt consumption

A daily increase of 5 grams in salt intake is associated with 23% of increase in the risk of stroke and 14% of increase in cardiovascular disease.

Fat consumption

The WHO revealed that elevated intake of saturated fat causes higher risk of high blood pressure.

Replacing partially hydrogenated oils for other types of fat will decrease the risk of coronary events between 20% and 40%. Read Article