To provide consumers with more information about what they eat, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) has imposed mandatory changes to food and beverage packaging. The measure went into effect on October 9th, but companies will have up to a year to adopt the new rules.

Thus, items that have been produced until October 9th, 2023 can still be sold if within the expiration date without needing to meet the requirements of the new law. There are still some exceptions: handcrafted products, for example, will have an additional year to comply.

Sugar, Fat and Sodium

One of the main changes imposed by Anvisa is that there be information if a product has large amounts of added sugars, saturated fats, and sodium introduced in the processing stage, that is, that are not natural to that food. These substances, when consumed in excess, can be harmful to health.

For example, in case of added sugars, it is obligatory to indicate there is a high amount in foods that contain at least 15 g (grams) of the ingredient per 100 g of product; and for beverages that contain 7.5 g per 100 milliliters (ml) of product.

Nutritional Facts Table

Another change in the packaging is the nutrition table, which tells you the amount of nutrients (such as protein and carbohydrates) in the item. Now, the letters must be black and the background white to make it easier to read. The regulation also requires the table to be located in the upper corner in the front of the package, and must be a minimum size (depending on the size of the package).

Other features of the table will also change. One of them is that all packages need to show the amount of each nutrient per 100 g of food (or 100 ml, in the case of beverages), to facilitate comparison between products. There was no standard before. For example, one package of food listed the amount of calories per 20 grams, while another listed the amount of calories per 25 grams.

Questions

1) Which of these will change because of the new law?

a) The packaging material

b) The nutrition table

c) The size of the packages

d) The amount of sodium permitted per packet

2) Do you think the new law is relevant? Explain your answer.

Sources: Agência Brasil, Correio Braziliense, Infomoney, and Superinteressante

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