Front-of-Package Labeling

Front-of-package warning labels give people the information they need to make healthier food choices. Vital Strategies partners with civil society and researchers to accelerate government adoption of these labels.

What Are Front-of-Package Warning Labels?

The mandatory front-of-package warning labels we support help consumers easily identify and avoid unhealthy foods and beverages with excess amounts of nutrients of concern, such as sodium, sweeteners and saturated fat, as well as additives.

Ultra-processed products high in fat, salt and sugar have displaced more traditional, nutritious foods in many countries, dominating retail spaces and food environments. Labels on food packaging have emerged as an effective tool to help consumers cut through the noise and quickly identify what’s actually in their food.

But not all front-of-package labels are created equal: mandatory, front-of-package warning labels are most effective at reducing purchases of unhealthy products by clearly flagging excess sugar, salt and saturated fat. These labels are also increasingly identifying harmful additives like nonsugar sweeteners and signaling when products are ultra-processed.

Our work helps build the case for best-practice warning labels to make them the global standard.

Our Impact

We support campaigns that have helped make warning labels an everyday reality in Brazil and Colombia. In Brazil, the “Right to Know” campaign was seen more than 740 million times, spurring record participation in a national public consultation — a Brazilian social participation mechanism —and securing warning labels nationally.

Our Capabilities

We work with our partners to advance implementation of best-practice front-of-package warning labels by designing and testing them locally, and shaping communication and advocacy for their adoption.

We conducted a scoping review with our partners to inform front-of-package warning labeling best practices. The review describes a conceptual model for how front-of-package warning labels affect consumer behavior, examines which outcomes were being measured and summarizes evidence from randomized controlled experiments.
Studies have demonstrated that octagonal warning labels—modeled on best-practice labels from Chile and Peru—perform best. Drawing on survey and focus group research in Colombia and Brazil, we proposed an “ultra-processed” warning label so consumers can identify these products alongside existing warnings for high sugar, sodium, and saturated fat.