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Obesity is a plague that affects one third of the Mexican population. The government is tackling the problem with a new law imposing large warning labels on products that are too fat, too sweet or too salty.
With our correspondent in Mexico,
With the law just passed by Parliament, indecipherable food labels will be replaced by large thumbnails that warn that the product is too fat, too salty or too sweet. But making consumers aware of what they eat is an immense task, in a country where the temptation of junk food is everywhere.
Street stalls with foods that are too fat and too sweet
In Mexico City, at lunchtime, street stalls swarm with hungry customers and street vendors do not stop: " I sell candies, cookies, lollipops, milk cream, chocolate and chips, "says a salesman.
A passerby just bought him a bottle of Coca-Cola and explains that it is the most popular drink in Mexico: " Most people consume a lot of sugar, it's almost a tradition, in families, we teaches you how to add sugar to the fruity drinks you make. It's very addictive. Mexico is also the world champion of soda consumption, with an average of 163 liters per year per capita. That's seven times more than the world average!
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At the booth next door, the locals are queuing for a taco, a corn pancake filled with meat. Marisel, a woman in her forties, draws in a packet of chips while waiting for her turn. She reads the packaging: " It says there are fats, salt ... It may not be 100 % clear, but basically it's fat and it's bad for your health. But Mexicans like that and will continue to eat it ! "
As in France, nutritional labels of foods are written with complex terms that do not allow to get a clear idea of what the product brings. An official study even shows that three-quarters of Mexicans do not know how many calories their bodies need each day. And almost half of the people surveyed admit they do not understand these labels.
Privilege a food at low prices
For this Mexican, the population is not used to eating very well balanced. " We can not afford a salad at the restaurant. There, we eat quickly and well for a euro fifty, that's what we can afford better with what we win. So yes, in the long run, it's bad, it gives cholesterol, but what can we do ? "
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This fatalism adds to the remarks of some observers pointing out that simple labels do not constitute a health policy. Although several measures have already been taken in the past, such as the tax introduced on sodas and junk food in 2014, it has not slowed their consumption. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the amount of this tax is too low to have a real effect.
A very recent junk food
Thirty years ago, Mexico, which is also one of the major fruit and vegetable producing countries, was not aware of this problem. The arrival of international trade in the 1980s and, in 1994, the free trade agreement with Canada and the United States, led to the massive influx of highly processed American products.
The Mexican market was suddenly flooded with cheap American corn, fast food and glucose syrup: a lot of empty calories at a low cost. At the same time, Mexican agricultural production, such as tomatoes, avocados, strawberries, began to massively export to the United States. An exchange from which Mexico is losing in terms of health.
In a country where it is easier to buy Coca-Cola than water, the path to change eating habits still seems long. Currently, diabetes is the leading cause of death in Mexico.