New labelling requirements in Mexico

Health problems related to overweight, obesity, diabetes and hypertension have been rising in Mexico among all population groups. Given the urgency of solving this problem, the Mexican government has implemented rules intended to increase the quality of consumers’ diets by establishing more specific and stringent rules for the labelling and advertising of the nutritional details of foods, non-alcoholic beverages and other pre-packaged products intended for human consumption.

The nutritional facts shown on the labels of food, non-alcoholic beverages and other products for human consumption are governed by the Sanitary Control of Products and Services Regulation of the Mexican General Health Law.

On February 14, 2014, a decree was published amending Article 25 of that regulation, establishing the obligation to include additional nutritional facts on the labels of these products. On April 15 an agreement was published specifying the technical guidelines determining how the new nutritional facts required by the amendment of the regulation should be displayed.

Article 25 of the regulation refers to the following requirements for the information that should be displayed on product labels:

I. Generic or specific information about the product;

II. A statements of the ingredients;

III. The identity and address of the manufacturer, importer, packaging company, or domestic or foreign dealer or maquiladora, as applicable;

IV. Instructions for storage, use, preparation and consumption;

V. The component(s) that could pose a risk to the health of consumers, either by ingestion, application or handling;

VI. The nutritional details;

VII. The expiry date;

VIII. A lot identification;

IX. The processing conditions to which the product has been subjected, when these are associated with potential risks;

X. Safety statements; and

XI. Warning statements.

The amendment to the regulation also requires the following information to be included on the front-of-pack labels of pre-packaged food and non-alcoholic beverages:

Flavoured drinks that are considered low energy or ‘light’ are excluded from the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

Similarly, a new article, Article 25 bis, was added to the regulation, which provides that from this point on there will be a ‘nutritional logo’ letting consumers know that the product meets the nutritional requirements laid down by the regulation. Use of the nutritional logo will not be mandatory. Members of the industry can apply to the Federal Commission for Protection Against Sanitary Risk (COFEPRIS) authorisation to include the nutritional logo on their products, provided they meet the nutritional requirements.

COFEPRIS will be the body that determines whether products meet the requirements of the regulations, and will have no more than three months from a request to respond to the producers.

It is worth mentioning that the reforms described came into force the day after their publication. However, according to the reforms to the regulation published on February 14, the industry will have a year from the time the reforms entered into force to adapt the labelling of the affected products. Also, before this deadline, the producers of these products may ask COFEPRIS for an extension of up to one additional year. The labelling guidelines came into force on April 16, 2014.

Below are links to the pages of the Official Journal of the Federation on which these reforms were published:

Daniel Sanchez is partner at Olivares. He can be contacted at: dsb@olivares.com.mx

Victor Ramirez is senior associate at Olivares. He can be contacted at: vrl@olivares.com.mx