Home > Policy Research > Marketing Regulations

Marketing Regulations

Marketing Regulations

Protecting children from pervasive, persuasive marketing for junk foods and sugary drinks is a crucial step in preventing childhood obesity. To reduce children’s exposure and limit the appeal and persuasive power of such marketing for kids, policies can can restrict when, where, and how companies may promote unhealthy products.

Chile

Read more about our work in Chile

Ley 20.606 | Implemented June 27, 2016

Law of Food Labeling and Advertising

This law introduced mandatory front-of package labeling, marketing restrictions, and school sales/marketing policies, which all use same nutrient profiling model to identify which products are subject to regulation. Packaged food and beverage products containing added sugars, sodium, or saturated fat and exceeding set thresholds for content of total sugar, sodium, saturated fat, or overall calories are considered “high in” products subject to all regulations. The law was implemented in three phases (in June of 2016, 2018, and 2019) with increasingly strict nutrient thresholds.

  • Front-of-package warning labels: “High in” products must carry black octagon “stop sign” octagonal warning labels for each nutrient in excess of thresholds (calories, sugar, saturated fat, and/or sodium). Products with a “high in” warning label for a given nutrient/calories cannot carry a health/nutrient claim related to that nutrient (or calorie content).
  • Marketing restrictions: “High in” products may not use child-directed marketing strategies or appeals in any media/marketing (including use of brand characters on packaging);
    • May not advertise during children’s programming (TV, cinema, online) or when child audience share >20%;
    • May not advertise on TV from 6 a.m. – 10 p.m. (2018 update; read in Spanish | English); and
    • Must carry warning message if advertised outside of restricted hours/programming.
  • School sales & marketing: “High in” products cannot be marketed, sold, or offered for free at kiosks, cafeterias, and feeding programs at schools and nurseries.

Read law in: Spanish | English

Chile Cereal Boxes

Peruvian flag

Peru

Read more about our work in Peru

Law on the Promotion of a Healthy Diet (Law 30021 / Supreme Decree No. 012-2018-SA) | Implemented June 1, 2019

Decree on Health Warnings on the Promotion of Healthy Eating among Children and Adolescents

  • Front-of-package warning labels: Processed foods and beverages with total sugar, saturated fat, or sodium content exceeding set thresholds and/or containing any added trans fats must carry black octagon “stop sign” warning labels for each nutrient in excess of thresholds.
  • Inclusion of warnings in other media:
    • Ads with fixed and moving images will carry warnings.
    • Radio and audiovisual media: warnings must be clearly, prominently and understandably recorded.
Peru Warning Labels

Resources

Restrictions on marketing food to children

Global map showing countries with national-level, mandatory policies aimed at protecting children from harmful marketing for unhealthy foods or beverages by limiting children’s exposure to marketing and/or by limiting the persuasive power of food marketing via restrictions on the use of certain creative marketing techniques. This resource includes a chart comparing policy scope in each country and more details on limits to television advertising.

Food and beverage marketing

Fact sheet describing the prevalence and persuasive nature of junk food marketing and its impact on children and adolescents. Learn how unhealthy food marketing contributes to global childhood obesity and about recommendations for regulations to limit its harms. Updated May 2022

Nutrition-related claims on fruit drinks

Fruit drinks (fruit-flavored beverages that contain added sweeteners) are the most popular sugar drink among infants and young children, despite expert recommendations that this age group should not consume any drinks with added sugar. This Fact sheet summarizes findings from three studies that examined nutrition claims made on fruit drink packages and how claims impact […]

Ultra-processed foods

Fact sheet describing ultra-processed foods and drinks and the threat they pose to public health worldwide as they make up increasingly greater portions of the global diet. Learn how to identify ultra-processed products; review the evidence for their association with a multitude of risk factors, diseases, and mortality; and explore policy options to reduce consumption. […]

Industry self-regulation

Fact sheet describing food and beverage industry voluntary self-regulation in three main areas of public health concern: 1) Child-directed food marketing; 2) front-of-package labelling; and 3) reducing unhealthy nutrients in the food supply. While self-regulation continues to be the most common approach globally for addressing industry’s role in the ongoing obesity crisis, this fact sheet […]

Publications

Decreases in purchases of energy, sodium, sugar, and saturated fat 3 years after implementation of the Chilean food labeling and marketing law: An interrupted time series analysis
Authors: Lindsey Smith Taillie, Maxime Bercholz, Barry Popkin, Natalia Rebolledo, Marcela Reyes, Camila Corvalan
Published in: PLOS Medicine, September 27, 2024 view full text

Food for thought of food for emotions? An analysis of marketing strategies in television food advertising seen by children in Colombia
Authors: Alicides Velasquez, Maria Fernanda Parra, Mercedes Mora-Plazas, Luis Fernando Gomez, Lindsey Smith Taillie, Francesca R Dillman Carpentier
Published in: Public Health Nutrition, August 10, 2023 view full text

Child-directed marketing on packaged breakfast cereals in South Africa
Authors: Alice Kahn, Tamryn Frank, Rina Swart
Published in: Public Health Nutrition, August 4, 2023 view full text

Beverage industry’s advertising expenditures and airtimes in South Africa from 2013 to 2019 target children and families
Authors: Micheal Kofi Boachie, Susan Goldstein, Petronell Kruger, Shu Wen Ng, Karen J. Hofman, Evelyn Thsehla
Published in: Journal of Public Health Research, April 24, 2023 view full text

Changes in children’s and adolescents’ dietary intake after the implementation of Chile’s law of food labeling, advertising and sales in schools: a longitudinal study
Authors: Gabriela Fretes, Camila Corvalán, Marcela Reyes, Lindsey Smith Taillie, Christina D. Economos, Norbert L.W. Wilson, Sean B. Cash
Published in: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, April 4, 2023 view full text

Socioeconomic patterns in budget share allocations of regulated foods and beverages in Chile: a longitudinal analysis
Authors: Guillermo Paraje, Daniela Montes de Oca, Camila Corvalán, and Barry Popkin
Published in: Nutrients, January 29, 2023 view full text

Youth's diets at school after implementation of Chile's Food Labeling and Advertising Law
Authors: Gabriela Fretes, Camila Corvalan, Marcela Reyes, Christina Economos, Lindey Smith Taillie, Norbert Wilson, Sean Cash
Published in: Obesity, December 1, 2021 view full text

Changes in the use of nonnutritive sweeteners in the Chilean food and beverage supply after the implementation of the Food Labeling and Advertising Law
Authors: Ricardo C. Zancheta, Camila Corvalán, Lindsey Smith Taillie, Vilma Quitral, Marcela Reyes
Published in: Frontiers in Nutrition | Nutrition and Food Science Technology, November 8, 2021 view full text

The effects of the Chilean food policy package on aggregate employment and real wages
Authors: Guillermo Paraje, Arantxa Colchero, Juan Marcos Wlasiuk, Antonio Martner Sota, Barry M. Popkin
Published in: Food Policy, April 1, 2021 view full text

Changes in the amount of nutrient of packaged foods and beverages after the initial implementation of the Chilean Law of Food Labelling and Advertising: A nonexperimental prospective study
Authors: Marcela Reyes, Lindsey Smith Taillie, Barry M Popkin, Rebecca Kanter, Stefanie Vandevijvere, Camila Corvalán
Published in: PLOS Medicine, July 28, 2020 view full text

Evaluating the impact of Chile’s marketing regulation of unhealthy foods and beverages: Pre-school and adolescent children’s changes in exposure to food advertising on television
Authors: Francesca Dillman Carpentier, Teresa Correa, Marcela Reyes, Lindsey S. Taillie
Published in: Public Health Nutrition, March 2020 view full text

An evaluation of Chile’s Law of Food Labeling and Advertising on sugar-sweetened beverage purchases from 2015 to 2017: A before-and-after study
Authors: Lindsey S. Taillie, Marcela Reyes, Michelle A. Colchero, Barry M. Popkin, Camila Corvalán
Published in: PLOS Med, February 11, 2020 view full text

Responses to the Chilean Law of Food Labeling and Advertising: Exploring knowledge, perceptions and behaviors of mothers of young children
Authors: Teresa Correa, Camila Fierro, Marcela Reyes, Francesca R. D. Carpentier, Lindsey S. Taillie, Camila Corvalan
Published in: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2019 view full text

Structural responses to the obesity and non‐communicable diseases epidemic: Update on the Chilean law of food labelling and advertising
Authors: Camila Corvalán, Marcela Reyes, Maria L. Garmendia, Ricardo Uauy
Published in: Obesity Reviews, March 2019 view full text

Does unmeasured confounding influence associations between the retail food environment and body mass index over time? The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study
Authors: Pasquale E. Rummo, David K. Guilkey, Shu Wen Ng, Katie A. Meyer, Barry M. Popkin, Jared P. Reis, James M. Shikany, Penny Gordon-Larsen
Published in: International Journal of Epidemiology, June 6 2017 view full text