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A ruled junk food ban in schools across Mexico came into effect on Saturday, officials said, while the country is trying to tackle one of the world’s worst obesity and diabetes epidemics.
The health guidelines, which were first published this past fall, take a direct shot on salt and sweet processed products that have become a base for generations of Mexican schoolchildren, such as sugar-like fruit drinks, packaged chips, artificial pork and soybean humps, chili flavored peanuts.
The announcement of the ban became the law, and Mexico’s education ministry posted on X: “Farewell, junk food!” And it encouraged parents to support the government’s crusade by cooking healthy meals for their children.
Mexico’s ambitious effort to rework its food culture and reprogram the next generation of consumers is being watched closely around the world as governments struggle to turn the tide on a global obesity epidemic.
In the United States, for example, Trump administration’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., promised to increase the country’s food system and “heal America again” by targeting ultra-processed foods to combat the upcoming obesity and diseases.
Under the new order of Mexico, schools should phase out any food and drink that even displays one black warning logo that is so high in salt, sugar, calories and fat. Mexico implemented that mandatory labeling system in 2020.
From Monday morning, the beginning of the school week, the ban on junk food also requires schools to serve more nutritious alternatives to junk food, such as bean taco’s, and offer ordinary drinking water.
“It’s much better to eat a bean taco than a bag of potato chips,” said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who made the effort.
The children of Mexico consume more junk food than anywhere else in Latin America, according to Unicef, which classifies the country’s obesity epidemic of the country as an emergency. Sousing drinks and many processed foods account for 40% of the total calories that children consume one day, the agency reports.
According to government statistics, a third of the Mexican children are already considered overweight or obese.
School administrators who are found in violation of the order have tight fines, ranging from $ 545 to $ 5.450.
But the maintenance poses a challenge in a country where previous ban on junk food struggled to obtain traction and monitoring were lax about Mexico’s 255,000 schools, many of which do not have water fountains and even reliable internet and electricity.
It was also not immediately clear how the government would ban the sale of junk food on sidewalks outside the school campuses, where street vendors usually end up candy, chips, nachos and ice during the recess and after the day of school.
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