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The effect of 'traffic-light' nutritional labelling on carbonated soft drink purchases in Ecuador

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  • Sandoval, Luis A.
  • Carpio, Carlos E.
  • Sanchez, Marcos
  • Borja, Ivan
  • Cabrera, Tania

Abstract

Overweight and obesity have become global concerns in developed and developing countries due to their rise in recent years and their association with the prevalence of non-communicable diseases including diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. In fact, it is estimated that roughly 39% of adults worldwide are overweight and 13% are obese. Ecuador is an example of a developing country concerned with the overweight and obesity problem, where it is estimated that 30% of children, 26% of teenagers and 63% of adults are either overweight or obese and where 1 in 4 deaths are attributed to chronic diseases. To address the overweight and obesity problem via the promotion of healthy eating habits, in 2013 the country approved technical regulation for the labelling of packed processed food products. The regulation included a mandatory traffic-light (TL) supplemental nutritional information labelling system to be displayed on the package of all processed foods for sale in the country. This new labelling system displays a traffic light panel for the product content of sugar, fat and salt in addition to the traditional nutrient declaration label. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the effect of the TL supplemental nutritional information on consumers’ buying behavior in Ecuador. More specifically, we concentrated on the purchasing behavior of carbonated soft drinks. For our analysis, we used monthly aggregated purchase data (total expenditures, quantities and average prices) of carbonated soft drinks from January 2013 to December 2015 obtained from Kantar World Panel—Ecuador. We estimated a non-linear Almost Ideal Demand System where we model the demand for high sugar and low sugar carbonated soft drinks. We found that the introduction of the traffic light supplemental nutrition labelling did not have the expected effect of reducing purchases of carbonated soft drinks during its first year of implementation, especially those high in sugar. Additionally, we fo
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Suggested Citation

  • Sandoval, Luis A. & Carpio, Carlos E. & Sanchez, Marcos & Borja, Ivan & Cabrera, Tania, 2017. "The effect of 'traffic-light' nutritional labelling on carbonated soft drink purchases in Ecuador," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 259181, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea17:259181
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.259181
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    Cited by:

    1. Villacis, Alexis H. & Carpio, Carlos E. & Boonsaeng, Tullaya & Cabrera, Tania & Alvarado, Jose, 2023. "Labels, Taxes, and Food Reformulation: A Tale of Sugar in Soft Drinks in Ecuador," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335755, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Lan Nguyen & Hans De Steur, 2021. "Public Acceptability of Policy Interventions to Reduce Sugary Drink Consumption in Urban Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-18, December.
    3. Otilia Vanessa Cordero-Ahiman & Jorge Leonardo Vanegas & Cecilia Alexandra Fernández-Lucero & Daniela Fernanda Torres-Torres & Víctor Dante Ayaviri-Nina & Gabith Miriam Quispe-Fernández, 2022. "Responsible Marketing in the Traffic Light Labeling of Food Products in Ecuador: Perceptions of Cuenca Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Paraje, Guillermo & Colchero, Arantxa & Wlasiuk, Juan Marcos & Sota, Antonio Martner & Popkin, Barry M., 2021. "The effects of the Chilean food policy package on aggregate employment and real wages," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).

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