By Carolina Montero
Recently, the National Institute for the Protection of Consumer Rights (Pro Consumidor) incinerated thousands of dozens of products that put the health of the population at risk. These foods, including dairy products and derivatives, were withdrawn from the market because most of them did not have labels on their packaging and because they presented other irregularities for consumption.
It is recalled that since 2016, the Inter-Institutional Commission for Labeling Standards established that dairy products and their derivatives, intended for human consumption or for hotel purposes that do not comply with the General Labeling requirements, cannot be marketed in the national territory. of Previously Packaged Food, established in the Dominican Norm NORDOM 53.
The label is a sign, mark, label or label that is attached to an object for identification, classification or evaluation. These include information on the ingredients, caloric content, nutritional value, production date, expiration date, health registration, among other aspects that must be contained.
There is a Technical Regulation RTD 53 created by the Department of Standardization of the General Directorate of Standards and Quality Systems (INDOCAL) that serves as a guide to identify a series of requirements that the labels of prepackaged products must contain and thus guarantee food safety.
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It indicates that prepackaged foods must not be described, labeled or labeled in a way that is false, misleading or misleading, or likely to create in any way an erroneous impression regarding its nature in any respect.
It indicates that the name, the nature of the food, additional words or phrases necessary to avoid misleading or deceiving the consumer with respect to the authentic nature and physical condition of the food must appear on them.
Likewise, when the consumer reads a label on a specific product, they must see the following on it:
- The list of ingredients, which must be headed or preceded by an appropriate title and listed in descending order of initial weight at the time of manufacturing the food, such as declaring those that have additives that may cause allergic reactions.
- net content.
- Drained weight.
- Name.
- Manufacturer address.
- Packer, distributor, importer, exporter or seller of food.
- Language.
- Industrial and sanitary registration numbers.
- Country of origin.
- Lot identification, as well as other complementary specifications.
This regulation also provides that the General Directorate of Customs does not authorize the import clearance of consumer products that do not meet the required requirements such as sanitary registration, expiration date, labels or labeling that are not at least in Spanish or that are not have health warnings in accordance with current regulations.
- What is established by Law 358-05 on Consumer Protection
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The General Law for the Protection of the Rights of Consumer, No. 358-05 establishes in its article 84, that the labels must contain information, at least, in Spanish, clear, truthful, timely and sufficient about the goods and services that are offered and marketed, in order to protect the health and safety of the latter, as well as his economic interests, in such a way that he can make an adequate and reasoned choice.
