The Government will prohibit the sale of junk food, foods and drinks with low nutritional value and high sugar, fat and sodium content, in schools, announced this Friday the new head of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP), Mario Delgado.
“We know that some sectors of the industry are not going to like it, especially those that produce this food with low nutritional content and high calorie content, junk food as we know it,” he told the media at the Villahermosa International Airport.
The secretary, who will accompany President Claudia Sheinbaum on a work tour, accused “that industry” of “invading Mexican children with advertising,” which “results in being one of the countries with the highest levels of childhood obesity.” in the world and that cannot continue like this.”
Overweight and obesity have been recognized as epidemiological emergencies due to their magnitude, rapidity of growth and the negative effect on health and the economy of Mexico.
According to data from the organization El Poder del Consumidor, in Mexico childhood overweight and obesity have increased 120% in the last three decades.
Read: Alarming wave of overweight and obesity spreads among children in Latin America: Unicef
Furthermore, it estimates that by 2030 at least 7 million children and young people will live with excess weight and 50% will develop diabetes during their lifetime.
The official assured that the SEP, under his charge, “has all the legal instruments in the General Education Law to regulate that there is no junk food in schools.”
He warned that next Monday, at the president’s daily conference, they will announce what this program consists of and how to implement these measures.
Delgado said that it is, “above all,” “an issue of changing the nutritional culture” of parents and “what is offered to boys and girls in schools.”
At Sheinbaum’s press conference on October 14, the measures published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) on September 30 were presented, which seek to guarantee nutrition and health from the first years of life of students in Mexico.
“Food and beverages offered inside schools must favor natural or minimally processed ingredients in the locality or region. And if their packaging has warning seals, they cannot be in schools,” the rule says.
In mid-June, civil organizations protested before the SEP to demand that the law be applied in schools to prohibit unhealthy foods and drinks, since they can cause half a million cases of childhood obesity in a year.
With information from EFE
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