The beverage industry expressed concern over the government’s plan to include health warnings on the label of sugar-sweetened drinks, saying this could further weaken demand.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said beverage manufacturers aired the sentiment during a meeting to discuss President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to warn the public against the health risks of consuming sweet beverages.
Lopez said the beverage industry insisted that beverages per se were not harmful to health and had less amount of sugar compared with non-beverage products like rice, bread, and processed food.
The beverage industry, he said, also proposed that packaged food be subject to the same health warnings.
“Sugar in beverage is generally a low source of sugar and calorie, typically at 3 percent. It supplies the energy requirement of Filipinos,” Lopez quoted the industry group as saying.
He said the group was worried about the negative connotation of health warning on labels.
Lopez said the group feared that using the word “warning” or “caution” would be detrimental to the sweetened beverage industry, whose sales were already affected by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law.
“We emphasized that we are not taxing the products, but this is more like to raise consciousness of consumers on sugar content, by giving prominence to the sugar content of the product on the front label similar to calorie content, ” Lopez said.
He said the beverage sector was keeping an open mind to the proposed labelling requirement as long as there would be no “warning” sign.
Lopez said the Trade Department and the sugar industry still needed to determine which products should carry the words “High in Sugar” on the front label. “©”©
“We will indicate sugar grammage content per pack. Our studies will continue and consultations with technical agencies like Food Nutrition Research Institute, National Nutrition Council and the Food and Drug Administration. Whatever the decision, we will set a transition period to allow them to use up current packaging,” Lopez said.
He said his agency would meet with FNRI and NCC to determine the reasonable benchmark on the definition of “High in Sugar” and which products should be included in the list.
Article 74 of the Consumer Act of the Philippines states that it is crucial to obtain accurate information on nature and quantity of the contents of various products for labelling and fair packaging.