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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1534195

Changes in the nutrient composition of top-selling packaged foods and beverages in Colombia between 2016 to 2021

Provisionally accepted
Luis Carlos Forero Luis Carlos Forero 1*Mercedes Mora Plazas Mercedes Mora Plazas 1Luis Fernando Gómez Luis Fernando Gómez 2María Fernanda Parra María Fernanda Parra 3,4Sara Abigail Toquica Sara Abigail Toquica 1Lindsey Taillie Lindsey Taillie 5
  • 1 Department of Human Nutrition, National University of Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
  • 2 Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, BOGOTÁ D.C., Colombia
  • 3 Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Pontifical Javeriana University, Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia
  • 4 Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
  • 5 Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: In 2022, the Colombian government approved a law requiring by 2024 the use of Front of Package octagonal warning labels in food products with an excess of nutrients of concern for chronic disease, including sodium, sugar, saturated fat, and trans-fat, as well as non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS). In addition, the government began 2023 by applying a 10% tax on sugar-sweetened beverages and foods that also had warning labels for sodium, sugar and saturated fat. This tax increased to 15% in 2024 and to $20% in 2025. While a previous study examined the changes in the nutritional composition of beverage and food products offered in Colombia between 2016 and 2018, it is necessary to update this information to understand whether the industry anticipated labeling and tax regulations by reformulating products.Methods: This study carried out a comparison of the content of selected nutrients of concern and non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) from the nutritional panels of 164 matched pairs of packaged foods and beverages from the top selling brands in Colombia in 2021 compared to 2016. McNemar's test for paired data was used to evaluate changes in the proportion of each of the critical nutrients and NNS to be regulated.Results: There were no significant changes in sodium, saturated fat, trans fat, or free sugar in foods or beverages prior to policy implementation. However, there was a significant increase in the presence of NNS in beverages, during this pre-policy period from 32% to 59%.Conclusions: These findings suggest that changes in nutrient composition of packaged foods and beverages had been marginal before the implementation of the tax and warning labeling laws.

    Keywords: noncommunicable disease prevention, Latin America, food policy, Food Labeling, Food Supply, Colombia

    Received: 25 Nov 2024; Accepted: 29 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Forero, Mora Plazas, Gómez, Parra, Toquica and Taillie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Luis Carlos Forero, Department of Human Nutrition, National University of Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.