Food packaging should have labels on front about health impact, says WHO

WHO draft guidelines recommend clear front-of-package labels to help consumers make healthier choices and combat global obesity crisis.

Packaged food and drinks should have easy-to-read nutritional information on the front of the products to help consumers make healthier choices, according to the first-ever World Health Organization draft guidelines that stopped short of recommending harsher warning labels.

Increased consumption of processed foods high in salt, sugar and fat is a key driver of a global obesity crisis, with more than a billion people living with the condition and an estimated eight million early deaths every year due to associated health problems like diabetes and heart disease, WHO data shows.

Yet governments have struggled to introduce policies to curb the epidemic.

Currently, only 43 WHO member states have any kind of front-of-package labelling either mandatory or voluntary, the UN agency told Reuters, despite evidence showing labels can affect buying behaviour.

The WHO began work on the draft guidelines, which have not been previously reported, in 2019. They aim “to support consumers in making healthier food-related decisions,” Katrin Engelhardt, a scientist in the Nutrition and Food Safety department of the WHO, told Reuters by email.

A public consultation on the guidelines closed on October 11 and the finalised version will be released in early 2025.

The WHO’s guidance recommends governments implement “interpretive” labels that include nutritional information and some explanation of what that means about the healthiness of a product.