Rotulagem nutricional frontal de alimentos: avaliação da proposta brasileira

Abstract

Nutrition labeling is any description intended to inform the consumer about the nutritional properties of the food. However, studies indicate that the population does not fully understand its content and wants clearer information, more didactic and easier to understand. In this sense, the nutritional labeling of foods comes to complement the traditional information facts table by linking symbols, alerts, colors and indicators to nutritional information. The National Agency of Sanitary Vigilance Agency (ANVISA) began the process of restructuring nutrition labeling in the country with the publication of the Preliminary Report of Analysis of Regulatory Impact on Nutrition Labeling in 2018. In this context, the present work was carried out with the objective of presenting a bibliographic review on food nutrition labeling in Brazil and comparing ANVISA's proposal for front-of-pack nutrition labeling with the models used in other countries. For this, a search for books and articles on a scientific basis was carried out, in addition to consulting the websites of regulatory agencies. The searches were conducted in June 2019, and the selection of articles was done through the relevance of the journal, year of publication and number of citations. Through the studies analyzed, it can be seen that the understanding of the nutritional content of foods is still low, and front-of-pack nutrition labeling is one of the options to help solving this question. In this way, ANVISA's proposal to restructure the legislation on the subject is relevant, in addition to creating a harmonization with the legislation of other MERCOSUR countries. The suggested front-of-pack nutritional labeling models have scientific support and popular support for implementation in Brazil. However, investment in education, simultaneously with regulatory adjustments, is essential to assist in the process of choosing healthier foods.