Chile's food labelling and advertising law

To prevent childhood overweight and obesity, the Chilean Government ratified the Food Labeling and Advertising Law (FLAL) (Law 20 606/2012), taking effect in January 2016. It covers four aspects: 1. Foods and drinks high in calories, sugars, sodium, and saturated fat must be marked with a front-of-package label (FoPL). The limits for these critical nutrients were lowered in three stages. Thus, while in 2016 a food product had to carry the warning sign for ‘high sugar content’ when it contained more than 22.5 g of sugar per 100 g, this limit dropped to 10 g in the third stage in 2019. 2. Products with FoPL are subject to restricted advertising and marketing. Targeting children younger than 14 years is prohibited. 3. Products high in the above-mentioned critical nutrients may not be sold in schools, be they packaged or not. 4. Schools must provide nutritional educational and promote physical activity.

In the mid 2000’s more than 60 per cent of the Chilean population were overweight. More than 20 per cent of children under six, more than 15 per cent of preschoolers and more than 25 per cent of first-graders were obese. Malnutrition is considered the main public health problem in the country. Prior to the law's enactment, poor diet and high body mass index were the leading causes of premature death and disability in Chile. The idea of front-of-packaging labels, restriction on advertising for these products and a ban on selling them in schools are part of the World Health Organization’s three-pronged approach to tackle childhood obesity. Chile is the only country in the world to introduce all three aspects.

Ministerio de Salud de Chile (Ministry of Health of Chile) is responsible for the monitoring and implementation of the policy.

overall calories purchased declined by 3·5%. Overall sugar declined by 10·2%, and saturated fat declined by 3·9%. The sodium content of overall purchases declined by 4·7%. Declines from high-in purchases drove these results with some offset by increases in not-high-in purchases. Among high-in purchases, relative to the counterfactual scenario, there were notable declines of 23,8% in calories purchased, 36,7% in sodium purchased, and 26,7% in sugar purchased. Source: Taillie, L. S., Bercholz, M., Popkin, B., Reyes, M., Colchero, M. A., & Corvalán, C. (2021). Changes in food purchases after the Chilean policies on food labelling, marketing, and sales in schools: a before and after study. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(8), e526-e533.

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