ArticleGlobalization and health2020
"The architecture of the state was transformed in favour of the interests of companies": corporate political activity of the food industry in Colombia.
Article in Globalization and health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Corporate influence on food and nutrition policies in Latin America and the Caribbean: key determinants and policy directions.Globalization and health · 2026Article
- The Political Determinants of Oral Health Inequalities: Lessons in Policy Development and Implementation From Six Case Studies.Community dentistry and oral epidemiology · 2025Review
- Corporate political activity of the food industry in the development of food policies in Latin America and the Caribbean: a narrative review of the current literature.Globalization and health · 2025Review
- "Favoring those who contributed to their political campaigns": an analysis of the incentives received by the food industry in Colombia in the period of 2018-2020.Globalization and health · 2025Article
- Corporate activities that influence population health: a scoping review and qualitative synthesis to develop the HEALTH-CORP typology.Globalization and health · 2024Article
- The role of corruption in global food systems: a systematic scoping review.Globalization and health · 2024Article
- Corporate interest groups and their implications for global food governance: mapping and analysing the global corporate influence network of the transnational ultra-processed food industry.Globalization and health · 2024Article
- The increasing trend in the consumption of ultra-processed food products is associated with a diet related to chronic diseases in Colombia-Evidence from national nutrition surveys 2005 and 2015.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- The role of the private sector in noncommunicable disease prevention and management in low- and middle-income countries: a series of systematic reviews and thematic syntheses.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2023Review
- Policy networks and competing interests in the development of the Mexican sugar-sweetened beverages tax.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- Interactions Between Nutrition Professionals and Industry: A Scoping Review.International journal of health policy and management · 2023Article
- Design and approval of the nutritional warnings' policy in Peru: Milestones, key stakeholders, and policy drivers for its approval.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Corporate Political Activity: Taxonomies and Model of Corporate Influence on Public Policy.International journal of health policy and management · 2023Article
- Two countries, similar practices: the political practices of the food industry influencing the adoption of key public health nutrition policies in Guatemala and Panama.Public health nutrition · 2022Article
- The WHO FCTC's lessons for addressing the commercial determinants of health.Health promotion international · 2021Article
- Corporate political activity in the context of unhealthy food advertising restrictions across Transport for London: A qualitative case study.PLoS medicine · 2021Article
- Commercial use of evidence in public health policy: a critical assessment of food industry submissions to global-level consultations on non-communicable disease prevention.BMJ global health · 2021Article
- Food environment solutions for childhood obesity in Latin America and among Latinos living in the United States.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2021Review
- Big food and the World Health Organization: a qualitative study of industry attempts to influence global-level non-communicable disease policy.BMJ global health · 2021Article
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6 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn Colombia, public health policies to improve food environments, including front-of-pack nutrition labelling and marketing restrictions for unhealthy products, are currently under development. Opposition to these policies by the food industry is currently delaying and weakening these efforts. This opposition is commonly known as 'corporate political activity' (CPA) and includes instrumental (action-based) strategies and discursive (argument-based) strategies. Our aim was to identify the CPA of the food industry in Colombia.
methodsWe conducted a document analysis of information available in the public domain published between January-July 2019. We triangulated this data with interviews with 17 key informants. We used a deductive approach to data analysis, based on an existing framework for the CPA of the food industry.
resultsWe identified 275 occurrences of CPA through our analysis of publicly available information. There were 197 examples of instrumental strategies and 138 examples of discursive strategies (these categories are not mutually exclusive, 60 examples belong to both categories). Interview participants also shared information about the CPA in the country. The industry used its discursive strategies to portray the industry in a 'better light', demonstrating its efforts in improving food environments and its role in the economic development of the country. The food industry was involved in several community programmes, including through public private initiatives. The industry also captured the media and tried to influence the science on nutrition and non-communicable diseases. Food industry actors were highly prominent in the policy sphere, through their lobbying, close relationships with high ranking officials and their support for self-regulation in the country.
conclusionsThe proximity between the industry, government and the media is particularly evident and remains largely unquestioned in Colombia. The influence of vulnerable populations in communities and feeling of insecurity by public health advocates is also worrisome. In Colombia, the CPA of the food industry has the potential to weaken and delay efforts to develop and implement public health policies that could improve the healthiness of food environments. It is urgent that mechanisms to prevent and manage the influence of the food industry are developed in the country.
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