In Sweeping War On Obesity, Chile Slays Tony The Tiger - The New York Times

In Sweeping War on Obesity, Chile Slays Tony the Tiger - The New York Times 07-11-18 23)02
In Sweeping War on Obesity, Chile

Slays Tony the Tiger
New regulations, which corporate interests delayed for almost a decade, require
explicit labeling and limit the marketing of sugary foods to children.
By Andrew Jacobs
Feb. 7, 2018
SANTIAGO, Chile — They killed Tony the Tiger. They did away with Cheetos’
Chester Cheetah. They banned Kinder Surprise, the chocolate eggs with a hidden
toy.
The Chilean government, facing skyrocketing rates of obesity, is waging war on

unhealthy foods with a phalanx of marketing restrictions, mandatory packaging
redesigns and labeling rules aimed at transforming the eating habits of 18 million
people.
Nutrition experts say the measures are the world’s most ambitious attempt to
remake a country’s food culture, and could be a model for how to turn the tide on a
global obesity epidemic that researchers say contributes to four million premature
deaths a year.
“It’s hard to overstate how significant Chile’s actions are — or how hard it has been
to get there in the face of the usual pressures,” said Stephen Simpson, director of the
Charles Perkins Centre, an organization of scholars focused on nutrition and obesity
science and policy. The multibillion dollar food and soda industries have exerted
those pressures to successfully stave off regulation in many other countries.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/health/obesity-chile-sugar-regulations.html Página 1 de 19
Since the food law was enacted two years ago, it has forced multinational behemoths
like Kellogg to remove iconic cartoon characters from sugary cereal boxes and
banned the sale of candy like Kinder Surprise that use trinkets to lure young
consumers. The law prohibits the sale of junk food like ice cream, chocolate and
potato chips in Chilean schools and proscribes such products from being advertised
during television programs or on websites aimed at young audiences.
Examples of cereal boxes from Chile with their mascots, left, and without.
Beginning next year, such ads will be scrubbed entirely from TV, radio and movie
theaters between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. In an effort to encourage breast-feeding, a ban
on marketing infant formula kicks in this spring.
Still craving Coca-Cola? In Chile, beverages high in sugar include an 18 percent tax,
which is among the steepest soda taxes in the world.
The linchpin of the initiative is a new labeling system that requires packaged food
companies to prominently display black warning logos in the shape of a stop sign on
items high in sugar, salt, calories or saturated fat.
The food industry calls the rules government overreach. Felipe Lira, the director of
Chilealimentos, an industry association, said the new nutrition labels were confusing
and “invasive,” and that the marketing restrictions were based on a scientifically
flawed correlation between the promotion of unhealthy foods and weight gain. “We
believe that the best way to approach the problem of obesity is through consumer
education that changes people’s habits,” he said in an emailed statement.
PepsiCo, the maker of Cheetos, and Kellogg’s, producer of Frosted Flakes, have gone
to court, arguing that the regulations infringe on their intellectual property. The case
is pending.
According to Chile’s health ministry, three-quarters of the country’s population is overweight or

obese. Victor Ruiz Caballero for The New York Times
Passers-by in front of a fast food restaurant in downtown Santiago. The medical cost of obesity was
2.4 percent of all health care spending in Chile in 2016 and could rise to 4 percent by 2030.
Victor Ruiz Caballero for The New York Times
María José Echeverria, a spokeswoman for PepsiCo, said the company was fully
compliant with the law, and had no interest in overturning it, but was only trying to
protect its ability to use a locally registered trademark.
Kellogg declined to comment.
Soaring obesity rates are forcing governments around the world to confront one of
the more serious threats to public health in a generation.
Planet Fat
Articles in this series are exploring the causes
and the consequences of rising obesity rates
around the world.
NESTLÉ GOES DOOR-TO-DOOR
How Big Business Got

Brazil’s Poor Hooked on
Junk Food
RESHAPING AFRICAN PALATES
Obesity Was Rising as

Ghana Embraced Fast
Food. Then Came KFC.
THE SODA TAX SHOWDOWN
She Took On Colombia’s

Soda Industry. Then She
Was Silenced.
A U.S.-STYLE DIET
A Nasty, Nafta-Related
A Nasty, Nafta-Related
Surprise: Mexico’s
Soaring Obesity
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
In Asia’s Fattest Country,

Nutritionists Take
Money From Food Giants
A FATHER'S FIGHT
One Man’s Stand

Against Junk Food as
Diabetes Climbs Across India
TIMES DOCUMENTARIES
Do Australians Need a
Sugar Intervention?
BANS AND BLACK WARNING

LABELS
In Sweeping War on
Obesity, Chile Slays Tony the Tiger
Until the late 1980s, malnutrition was widespread among poor Chileans, especially
children. Today, three-quarters of adults are overweight or obese, according to the
country’s health ministry. Officials have been particularly alarmed by childhood
obesity rates that are among the world’s highest, with over half of 6-year-old children
overweight or obese.
In 2016, the medical costs of obesity reached $800 million, or 2.4 percent of all health
care spending, a figure that analysts say will reach nearly 4 percent in 2030.
Such sobering statistics helped rally a coalition of elected officials, scientists and
public health advocates who overcame fierce opposition from food companies and
their allies in government.
“It was a hard-fought guerrilla war,” said Senator Guido Girardi, vice president of the
Chilean senate and a doctor who first proposed the regulations in 2007. “People have
a right to know what these food companies are putting in this trash, and with this
legislation, I think Chile has made a huge contribution to humanity.”
‘Poison of Our Time’
Senator Guido Girardi, shown here in 2015, is vice president of the Chilean senate and a
doctor. He first proposed the food regulations in 2007.
Juan Eduardo Lopez/GDA, via Associated Press
From India to Colombia to the United States, countries rich and poor have been
struggling to combat rising obesity — and encountering ferocious resistance from
food companies eager to protect their profits.
In Chile, corporate interests delayed passage of the law for almost a decade, and on
two occasions there were so many lobbyists crowding Congressional hearings for the
bill that the Senate president was forced to suspend the sessions and clear the room.
But the industry rarely faces opponents like Senator Girardi. A trained surgeon with
a flair for the theatrical, he is a key figure in the governing coalition of President
Michelle Bachelet. During the long fight over the food law, Senator Girardi, 56,
publicly assailed big food companies as “21st century pedophiles” and before Ms.
Bachelet took office, spent weeks protesting outside the presidential palace with
placards that accused her predecessor, Sebastián Piñera, of destroying the nation’s
health by vetoing an earlier version of the legislation.
“Sugar kills more people than terrorism and car accidents combined,” he said in an
interview as he shook a box of Trix cereal for effect. “It’s the poison of our time.”
There were other factors that made the legislation possible, including a legislature
determined to address the rising economic costs of obesity and support from Ms.
Bachelet, a socialist who also happens to be trained as a pediatrician.
In the end, industry pressure succeeded in easing some measures in the original
legislation, including loosening the advertising restrictions and quashing a proposed
ban on junk food sales near schools.
Strange Grocery Aisles
A supermarket shelf in Santiago. Each of the black nutrition labels indicates a product is high in one
of four categories: salt, sugar, calories and fat. Victor Ruiz Caballero for The New York Times
Strolling through a Chilean supermarket can be visually jarring. Boxes of Nesquik

chocolate powder no longer include Nestle’s hyperkinetic bunny. Gone, too, are the
dancing candies that enliven packages of M&Ms the world over.
Then there are the warning signs that appear on the front of countless items.
Cereal bars, yogurts and juice boxes, products long advertised as “healthy,” “natural”
or “fortified with vitamins and minerals,” now carry one or more of the black
warning labels. A bottle of Great Value brand light ranch dressing displays all four
warning logos — marking it as high in salt, sugar, calories and fat.
“I never really paid attention to labels,” Patricia Sánchez, 32, an accountant and
mother of two, said as she filled her shopping cart at a Santiago supermarket, with
occasional help from her 7-year-old daughter. “But now they kind of force you to pay
attention. And if I don’t notice, my kids do.”
Obesity rates in Chile have yet to fall, and experts say it could take years to
significantly modify the way people eat. But by focusing on the packaging and
advertising of unhealthy foods that appeal to children, the Chilean government is
hoping to reprogram the next generation of consumers.
“You have to change the entire food system and you can’t do that overnight,” said Dr.
Cecilia Castillo Lancellotti, former head of nutrition at the country’s Health Ministry
and an early proponent of the legislation.
The new regulations, however, have prompted an unexpected payoff already: Food
companies have been voluntarily modifying their products to avoid the dreaded
black logos.
According to AB Chile, a food industry association, more than 1,500 items, or 20

percent of all products sold in Chile, have been reformulated in response to the law.
Nestlé reduced the sugar in its Milo chocolate powder drink, McDonald’s is offering
fruit purée, yogurt and cherry tomatoes in its Happy Meals, and local companies
have been introducing new products like nuts, rice cakes and dried fruit to sell in
schools.
A food stall in Santiago. Officials have been particularly alarmed by Chile’s childhood obesity rates,
with over half of 6-year-old children overweight or obese. Victor Ruiz Caballero for The New York Times
The new law says ice cream, chocolate and potato chips can’t be advertised during television
programs or on websites aimed at young audiences. Victor Ruiz Caballero for The New York Times
A KFC restaurant in Chile. In 2016, the medical costs of obesity for the country reached $800 million,
or 2.4 percent of all health care spending. Victor Ruiz Caballero for The New York Times
Last month, Coca-Cola began an advertising campaign for new versions of Sprite
and Fanta that boasts the tagline “Free of Logos, Equally Rich” — a nod to the fact
that they will no longer contain warning labels because the company replaced half
the sugar with artificial sweetener.
Ben Sheidler, a spokesman for Coca-Cola, said the company had created 32 new
beverages in the last 18 months, and that 65 percent of its drinks portfolio in Chile
could now be described as having low or reduced sugar.
A spokesman for PepsiCo said two-thirds of its beverage brands in Chile also
qualified as low or sugar-free and that more than 90 percent of its snack offerings
were now low in both sodium and saturated fat.
Other companies have embraced the logo system as a way to tout healthy offerings.
Soprole, a Chilean dairy company, produced a commercial that features child
newscasters explaining the label system in a way their peers can understand.
“Originally we didn’t believe the logos would make much of a difference but in focus
groups, we’ve discovered that kids really do look at them,” said Dr. Camila Corvalan,
of the University of Chile who has been assessing the impact of new label system.
“They’ll say ‘Mom, this has so many logos. I can’t bring them to school. My teacher
won’t allow it.”
Soon after the labels began appearing, AB Chile, the industry association, released
an online ad using Chilean celebrities to attack the new regulations. In one scene, a
well-known television presenter propped up in his putative sick bed considers a tray
of soup, crackers and marmalade — items he said the new law has deemed
unhealthy. “This is what my mom gave me all my life and I can no longer eat it?” he
asks indignantly. In another, an actress pulls a mound of mints from her pocketbook.
“It’s obvious that they are high in sugar,” she says. “But I only eat two or three.”
Pedro Cortés gets help to try and control his weight with help from Katherine Vasquez, a nutritionist
at the Vida Sana program. Victor Ruiz Caballero for The New York Times
The ad prompted a fierce backlash online that went viral. In one counterattack, the
Chilean actor Pablo Schwartz posted a video of himself pondering a mound of white
powder. “Everyone says cocaine is bad, of course, but would you snort a quarter kilo
at once?” he asks before inhaling a bump and then adding “It’s all about portion.”
The association killed their ad criticizing the new regulations.
The job of implementing the rules falls to a group of technical advisers who gather
weekly at the Ministry of Health and provide guidance on whether a snack company
should remove the dancing cat logo from cookie packages or whether an adult‘s
voice should replace the small, childlike one hawking corn chips on a radio spot.
“Sometimes it’s easy, like if a dog is wearing glasses and talking like a person, but
sometimes it’s not,” said Dr. Lorena Rodriguez, the ministry’s head of nutrition. “We
fight and fight and fight until we have consensus.”
Dr. Jaime Burrows Oyarzún, the vice minister of public health, is confident the
government will prevail in court. As chief arbiter of the new regulations, he often
bears the brunt of industry ire. After the banning of Kinder Surprise, a company
executive from Italy and the Italian ambassador to Chile accused him of waging
“food terrorism” during a visit to his office, he recalled in an interview.
Mauro Russo, managing director at Ferrero, the maker of the Kinder Surprise, said
the law had been erroneously applied to their product because the toy is an intrinsic
part of the treat, not a “promotional gadget,” as described by the legislation, that
seeks to stimulate sales. He also disputed the notion that the product is unhealthy,
noting that each egg contains 110 calories and that few consumers purchase more
than one or two a year. “Kinder Surprise’s impact on obesity is very marginal,” he
said.
Many poor Chileans do their food shopping at small mom-and-pop stores that sell mostly processed
and packaged food and little fresh produce. Above, a store in the El Bosque neighborhood of
Santiago. Victor Ruiz Caballero for The New York Times
Some nutrition advocates wonder how long the law will survive in its current form.
Mr. Piñera, the former president who was recently elected to the office again and will
succeed Ms. Bachelet in March, is a conservative businessman who vetoed the food
bill in 2011 during his first term in office. Instead, his administration backed a
nutrition initiative, financed by multinational food companies, that emphasized
healthy recipes, exercise and moderation when it comes to junk food. The campaign
was the project of the first lady, Cecilia Morel Montes.
“We don’t need more taxes,” she said in an interview.
A spokesman for Mr. Piñera said he would likely take a second look at the law and
explore ways “to improve it” after he takes office.
In the meantime, other countries in Latin America, among them Ecuador and Brazil,
are seeking to borrow elements of Chile’s initiative. Dr. Carlos A. Monteiro, a
professor of nutrition and public health at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, said
leaders throughout the region could no longer ignore the rising medical costs of diet-
related diseases like diabetes and hypertension.
“The epidemic of obesity is so clear and harmful to the whole population, including
the political elite, and no country is succeeding to control it without regulation of the
food environment,” he said. “Doing nothing is no longer an option.”
Monitors from a nonprofit, Educación Popular en Salud, giving information on healthy and cheap food
to the residents of the low-income El Bosque neighborhood of Santiago.
Victor Ruiz Caballero for The New York Times
Matt Richtel contributed reporting from New York, and Pascale Bonnefoy from Santiago.
Follow @NYTHealth on Twitter. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.
A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 8, 2018, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Waging a Sweeping War on
Obesity, Chile Slays Tony the Tiger

In Sweeping War On Obesity, Chile Slays Tony The Tiger - The New York Times

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

In Sweeping War On Obesity, Chile Slays Tony The Tiger - The New York Times

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

In Sweeping War on Obesity, Chile Slays Tony the Tiger - The New York Times 07-11-18 23)02

In Sweeping War on Obesity, Chile

The Chilean government, facing skyrocketing rates of obesity, is waging war on

According to Chile’s health ministry, three-quarters of the country’s population is overweight or

Kellogg declined to comment.

NESTLÉ GOES DOOR-TO-DOOR

How Big Business Got

RESHAPING AFRICAN PALATES

Obesity Was Rising as

THE SODA TAX SHOWDOWN

She Took On Colombia’s

In Asia’s Fattest Country,

One Man’s Stand

BANS AND BLACK WARNING

‘Poison of Our Time’

Strange Grocery Aisles

Strolling through a Chilean supermarket can be visually jarring. Boxes of Nesquik

warning logos — marking it as high in salt, sugar, calories and fat.

According to AB Chile, a food industry association, more than 1,500 items, or 20

The association killed their ad criticizing the new regulations.

“We don’t need more taxes,” she said in an interview.

Victor Ruiz Caballero for The New York Times

Follow @NYTHealth on Twitter. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.

You might also like