Food and drink companies such as Nestlé, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s and Grupo Bimbo have thrown their backing behind a pilot programme in Colombia designed to provide consumers with greater information about nutrition and health.
The Consumer Goods Forum has started testing a new scheme in the country’s capital, Bogotá, described as a first of its kind.
The Give a Healthy Twist to Your Life programme involves educating consumers about proper nutrition, portion control, active living and how to effectively read product labels. Since May, eight so-called ‘healthy stations’ have been installed in supermarkets across the city – in outlets of Carulla, Éxito, Jumbo and Metro de Bogotá – that will include on-site support and advice from trained nutritionists and physical trainers.
The scheme is intended to ‘help empower consumers to make more informed decisions’ surrounding their diet, The Consumer Goods Forum said.
Eight ‘healthy stations’ have been installed in retail stores in Bogotá.
It comes after research found that nearly 60% of people in Latin America were either overweight or obese. In Colombia, every other person is overweight and just one in four manage the recommended weekly amount of physical activity for a healthy lifestyle – 150 minutes in total.
Alqueria, Cencosud, Femsa and Grupo Éxito are also taking part in the project.
The bosses of the nine participating organisations noted that their goal was to work together as retail marketers and manufacturers, regardless of whether they are competitors, with a collective approach that helps actively promote healthier lifestyles and allows them to learn from current best practices on public health issues.
By working together, the CEOs said, they can find the right actions to help people adopt healthier lifestyles.
Also today, five of the US’ leading confectionery companies promised to reduce the numbers of calories in their products.
Mars, Nestlé, Ferrero, Lindt and Ferrara Candy all signed a commitment to make half of their individually wrapped products with fewer than 200kcal by 2022. They will also ensure that their best-selling products have easy-to-read nutrition labels.
The pledge adds volume to Hershey’s earlier commitment to make 50% of its individually wrapped standard and king-sized confectionery products with 200kcal or fewer by 2020.
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