Head of doctors’ association supports front-of-package labels in NCD fight

President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) Dr Lynda Williams is throwing her full support behind a local and regional move to put warning labels on unhealthy foods to tackle the scourge of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

She told Barbados TODAY the highly-touted octagonal front-of-package labels (FOPL) would help consumers reduce their intake of salt, sugar and fats.

“It is going to be a very significant intervention for the region if we do this,” said Dr Williams. “We have been pushing it at a local level, we have been pushing it at a regional level, and really it is past time for something to be done to drive the change in diet that we want to see.”

Recently released research conducted by the University of the West Indies and the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) revealed that the easy-to-understand FOPL could potentially reduce NCD-related deaths by 16 per cent in Barbados, where NCDS account for about eight out of every ten deaths. It also showed that as a result, the country stood to benefit from savings of up to US$732.8 million.

Indicating that just over a third of the Barbados population was overweight and obese, Dr Williams said she agreed with the study.

She explained that a reduction in the consumption of sodium, added sugars and saturated fats, would lead to a reduction in the health risks associated with NCDs in both children and adults.

Though acknowledging that exercise and other environmental factors must be taken into account, the BAMP head stressed that it was critical to “tackle how we eat – the sugar, salt, processed food and more of what we call ultra-processed food that leads to a large role in overweight and obesity and the development of NCDs in Barbados”.

Indicating that she was all for providing people with information to make informed choices, Dr Williams said a critical component of the implementation of the FOPL will be the education of parents.

“So that has to be a direction that we are going in,” said the epidemiologist.

She said she believed the FOPL would be a perfect twinning with the Barbados School Nutrition Policy and the anticipated National Nutrition Policy.

“The advent of more fast food, the advent of more readily available food means that we have to help our people keep up with the knowledge about what this food is potentially doing to them. If we had octagonal warning labels with ‘high in sugar’, ‘high in saturated fat’, ‘high in sodium’, ‘high in trans fat’ . . . I think that would go a tremendous way in helping us to understand what we all need to do,” she said.

After months of discussions and research, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states voted on the ‘high in’ octagonal FOPL model in May 2021, with six countries voting for, three voting against and six abstaining, resulting in less than the 75 per cent vote needed for it to be approved.

CARICOM member states have now been reissued with the revised recommendations by the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), with the hope that another vote will be taken early next year and the FOPL implemented shortly after.

Dr Williams told Barbados TODAY she expected there would be some pushback from segments of the society, including regional manufacturers, although she pointed out that manufacturers have largely been instrumental in making changes to their products, especially those in the beverage industry.

“So a lot of manufacturers have become more aware, but we still have a long way to go because we do not manufacture a lot of our food, we import most of it,” she said.

“To make it work, we really need to look at the regional level, but I still think there is a lot that can be done at the local level. And I know the NGOs have worked a lot at the local level to sensitise those who manufacture products here. It is not only the consumers that need to change their behaviour but we also need to change what we offer to them.”

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb