HCC President: Media has role to play in nutrition label push

Media practitioners have critical roles to play in the ongoing process involving educating, advocating, representing, ques-tioning and contributing to the best public health outcome in Front of Package Nutrition Warning Labels (FOPNWL).

President of Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), Sir Trevor Hassell made this statement during the Journalists Sensitisation and Panel Discussion, “Public Health Matters, COVID-19 and FOPL” last week.

The HCC President added that the training session’s aim is to increase awareness and build support of Caribbean journalists.  Sir Trevor said that over the past two years, there has been intense negotiations and discussions in a process led at a regional level on the issue.

The objectives of the sensitisation are to increase awareness among senior journalists in the Caribbean of the importance of strong healthy food policy, namely front of package nutrition warning labels (FOPNWL),and support meaningful discussion around FOPNWL among senior journalists in the Caribbean. The event organisers also wanted to build support among senior journalists in the Caribbean for adoption of Front of Package Nutrition Warning Label standards,  which contributes to HCC’s larger goal to build public and policymaker support for strong food policy, namely Front of Package Nutrition warning labels through earned media.

Current label packaging is inadequate

It is noted that the current back of package and front of package labels are confusing and do not assist consumers in making healthy choices. Forty-four per cent (3.1 million) of all deaths in this region are attributed to high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and overweight and obesity. Excess intake of sugars, total fats, saturated fats, trans fats and sodium are driven largely through the consumption of ultra-processed foods which are poorly labelled and heavily marketed particularly in low-and-middle income settings and emerging unregulated markets such as those in the Caribbean.

Participants included Mr. Amitabh Sharma, Jamaica Gleaner; Emmanuel Joseph, Barbados Today and President of Barbados Association of Journalists and Media Workers (BARJAM), Garfield Burford, Antigua and Barbuda Broadcasting Services (ABS) and Lisa Bayley,  Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).