'Pinoys want food warning labels'

A majority of Filipinos are in favor of adopting food warning labels in the country, health advocates said.

- RHODINA VILLANUEVA

The Healthy Philippines Alliance (HPA) said findings of a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey it commissioned showed 66 percent of Filipinos are supportive of a policy that will implement food warning labels for pre-packaged and ultra-processed food and beverage products.

HPA is a coalition of civil society organizations fighting to prevent noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

Out of this 66 percent, 39 percent expressed strong support for such a measure.

Moreover, 62 percent or 6 out of 10 Filipinos, across all demographics, areas, socioeconomic and educational status, said that food warning labels or the black octagonal warning labels scheme are the most effective versus other labeling schemes, specifically the Nutri-score, Health Star Rating and Traffic Light.