Locked in what appears increasingly, to be an uphill battle against childhood obesity, and what has been described as the “regional epidemic” of non-communicable diseases (NCD), the Caribbean appears to be preparing for its latest pushback against these twin scourges that lie close to the top of the region’s key health concerns.
A week ago, what has been described as a “ground-breaking campaign” was launched by a partnership of organisations, namely the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission, and the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), designed to mount responses to two life-threatening maladies. Titled “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 mobilising public and policymaker support for adopting octagonal warning labels on the front of packaged products to facilitate wiser food-purchasing decisions. The initiative will be rolled out across all CARICOM member states on both conventional and media platforms between now and April 17.
While Caribbean health officials have, for several years, been fretting over what has been described as unhealthy diets, driven by widely available and affordable processed foods, high in sugars, fats and salt, there appears to have been only limited efforts on the part of the health authorities in the respective CARICOM territories to curb this food consumption trend. Seemingly jolted by the realisation that the COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated the vulnerability of persons living with non-communicable diseases and who are at higher risk, the recent initiative would appear to have been triggered by a wake-up call that points to a serious Caribbean-wide potential health scourge.
The campaign seeks to nudge Caribbean health professionals and decision-makers to use COVID-19 as a springboard to prioritise action on non-communicable diseases and childhood obesity.
The initiative will embody a particular focus on octagonal front-of-package warning labelling that takes its cue from a recent study conducted by PAHO in Jamaica which purportedly revealed that the size, shape, and colour of food warning labels can have a huge impact on their effectiveness.
CARICOM member states have until April 14 to vote on the adoption of the final draft of a Regional Standard which incorporates front-of-package warning labelling specifications. If the Standard is approved and endorsed, CARICOM territories will join a growing number of countries in the fight against obesity and non-communicable diseases through label regulations protecting the rights of their citizens to know what is in their food.
