ArticleInternational journal of health policy and management2024
Understanding the Politics of Food Regulation and Public Health: An Analysis of Codex Standard-Setting Processes on Food Labelling.
Article in International journal of health policy and management, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Spectroscopy-multimodal data fusion empowers smart food quality analysis: Challenges and prospects.Food chemistry: X · 2026Review
- Global Regulatory Mandates as Drivers for Advanced Chemical Analysis in Food Safety.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Tool for assessing food industry commitments and practices to address the double burden of malnutrition: a Delphi study.Globalization and health · 2025Article
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7 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundThe importance of the international food regulatory system to global health, is often overlooked. There are calls to reform this system to promote healthy and sustainable food systems centred on the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), the United Nation's (UN's) standard-setting body. Yet this presents a significant political challenge, given Codex has historically prioritized food safety risks over wider harms to public health, and is dominated by powerful food exporting nations and industry groups with a primary interest in trade expansion. To better understand this challenge, we examine who participates and contests Codex standards, using the development of the new Guidelines on Front-of-pack Nutrition Labelling (FOPNL) as a case study.
methodsThe study involved: (
resultsCountry representation was skewed towards high-income (47.9%). Member state delegations were dominated by non-health ministries (59.8%) and industry actors (16.1%). Industry actors comprised the large majority of observers (84.2%) and civil society actors representing public health interests the least (12.2%). Commercial actors used frames supporting positive FOPNL messages (eg, low in salt) opposing negative ones (eg, "high-in" sugar warnings) and called for product exemptions (eg, sports foods and baby foods). Public health actors used frames supporting simplified FOPNL to reduce consumer confusion, that hold up public health goals, and prevent inappropriate marketing.
conclusionParticipation in the Guidelines development process suggests stronger preferences for trade facilitation and commerce over public health. Ambitions to reform the international food regulatory system may require an examination of who participates and how to address this asymmetrical representation of interests. These results suggest the need to greatly strengthen public health representation at Codex.
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