Locked up in what seems to be an uphill battle against childhood obesity, and what has been described as a “regional epidemic” of non-communicable diseases (NCD), the Caribbean appears to be preparing for its latest push back against these twin scours near the top of the region’s key health concerns.
A week ago, what was described as an “innovative campaign” was launched by a partnership of organizations, the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), the Pan American Institute of Health (PAHO), the East Caribbean States Organization (OECS) Commission, and the Emergency Fund United Nations Children (UNICEF), designed to conduct responses to two life-threatening cases. Entitled “Now More Than Ever: Better Labels, Better Choices, Better Health”, the campaign will focus on raising awareness of children’s right to nutritious food and stimulating public and policy maker support for adopting octagonal warning labels on black front of packaged products to facilitate smarter. food purchasing decisions. The initiative will be rolled out across all CARICOM member states on conventional and media platforms between now and April 17.
Although, for many years, Caribbean health officials have been drooling over what has been described as unhealthy diets, driven by widely available and affordable processed foods, which contain many sugars , fats and salt, there appear to have been only limited efforts on the part of the health authorities in the different CARICOM territories to curb this trend of food consumption. Apparently, realizing that the COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated the vulnerability of people living with non-communicable and high-risk diseases, the recent initiative seems to have been triggered by a wake-up call attention to and a serious medical flare-up throughout the Caribbean.
The campaign seeks to encourage Caribbean health professionals and decision makers to use COVID-19 as a starting point to prioritize action on non-communicable diseases and childhood obesity.
The initiative will incorporate a specific focus on octagonal package frontal labeling that takes its hint from a recent study conducted by PAHO in Jamaica that revealed that the size, shape and color of food warning labels can have a huge impact on their effectiveness.
CARICOM member states have until April 14 to vote on adopting the final draft of a Regional Standard that incorporates front-of-pack warning labeling specifications. If approved and approved by the Standard, CARICOM territories will join an increasing number of countries in the fight against obesity and non-communicable diseases through label regulations that protect the rights of their citizens to know what’s in their food.