France has already implemented the model Nutriscore six months ago and is pending to be introduced in Belgium and Portugal

the information in The new labeling will allow citizens to compare similar products to choose the healthier option

The minister of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare, Mary Luis Carcedo, announced today the implementation in food and beverages in a logo of five colors, to facilitate the citizens with accurate information on the nutritional quality of the product.

This code, known as Nutriscore and which follow the recommendations of the scientific societies, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other countries of the european Union (EU), is already being implemented in France for the last six months and is pending to be introduced in Belgium and Portugal.

In Spain, according to Carcedo, also you will begin to see in the supermarkets soon. The measure will be compulsory within a year, the period in which is approved the royal decree.

The code of five colors consisting of a chart with coloration gradually from green to red in five levels in the style of a traffic light. Each product highlighted will be the color that corresponds to a function of their sugar, saturated fats, salt, calories, fiber and protein, so that the green will identify the healthier products, and the red those of lower nutritional quality.

As explained by the minister, the information in the new labeling will allow citizens “to compare similar products easily, and make an informed decision, and motivated to follow a healthier diet”.

The announcement of five multinational

This announcement comes a week after five of the big multinational food make public its own ‘traffic light ‘nutritional’. A measure very different from the initiative of the Ministry of Health. In fact, the measure adopted by the five multinational companies has been criticized of nutritionists, associations of consumers and other businesses. “Your system can be caused by, among other things because they do not do the calculations on the basis of the 100 grams is considered a serving,” explains Miguel Angel Lurueña, doctor of science and food technology. In addition, “do not make a global computing evaluating all the nutrients (trans fats, salt, sugars, proteins, fiber, etc) do not take into account the specific characteristics of the food”.

Limits on advertising

Carcedo has advanced that would limit the advertising of unhealthy foods directed at children of 15 years through a reform of the code PAOS self-regulation of advertising with the intention that the companies adhere on a voluntary basis and, in the case it does not do so, the Ministry will consider the adoption of other control measures. “There is evidence that advertising influences the preferences, purchases and behaviors of children and adolescents with regard to food and drinks.”

These ads have been made public during the delivery of the XI Awards Naos Strategy (Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Prevention) , in an act in which, in addition, it has indicated that it shall establish measures in schools and colleges to prevent the sale of food and beverages with a high sugar content, saturated fatty acids and trans fats, salt and calories.

This type of measures will be taken in coordination and collaboration with other departments and the autonomous communities, looking for the maximum possible synergies. “It is necessary that the Health Authorities, the hospitals and health centers, and public spaces of all kinds become centers of health promoters and is exemplary in the supply of products in their facilities”, said the minister.

In this sense, the contracts awarded to suppliers, services cátering, canteens and vending machines must have criteria of nutritional quality in addition to safety-related.

According to the criteria of

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