Five years after the Caribbean first began deliberating the adoption of what is known as a Front of Package Label (FOPL) aimed at sensitizing consumers to what has become “a growing endemic of non-communicable diseases” that can derive from being unmindful of the dangers associated with mostly food and beverage consumption, the Caribbean, including Guyana, still appears unprepared to address the issue frontally.
Guyana, reportedly is one of several Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries that remain seemingly indifferent to the importance of embracing FOPL as a guide to food consumption habits, according to the article authored by Caribbean writer Daphne Ewing- Chow. The resistance across the region to FOPL as a means of alerting consumers to the importance of being selective of the foods and beverages that they consume is particularly important given the significant numbers of cases of food consumption-related diseases and deaths that derive from an absence of prominent warnings on health issues on the packaging of foods that are known to be attended by negative health-related effects.