Publications by authors named "Margarita Otero-Alvarez"

Bennett and colleagues' paper aims to synthesize the existing frameworks to identify and monitor unhealthy commodity industry's (UCI's) influence on health "to create a template surveillance system to be used by national governments across industries." In this commentary, we argue that to achieve a robust government-led national surveillance system, some challenges should be considered, such as () addressing power asymmetries between government and UCIs involved in policy-making, () evaluating competing interests among government constituencies to achieve policy coherence around health issues, and () contemplate whether governments rely on private or corporate donors and partners that may threaten financing and operationalization of the surveillance. Suggestions on how to overcome these challenges are beyond the scope of this commentary, but we discuss some cases of bottom-up approaches from organized groups aiming to hold UCIs accountable.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzes how Mexico implemented front-of-pack nutrition labeling (FOPNL) from 2019 to 2022, focusing on legislative processes and public health outcomes.
  • The government introduced a new warning label system for food products, which faced pressure from the food industry that sought to dilute regulations, yet public health groups successfully preserved key health protections.
  • The successful early implementation highlighted the importance of a collaborative regulatory approach, and other countries can learn from Mexico’s experience to enhance their own FOPNL initiatives.
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