Minister Esquivel Mossa proposes to the SCJN to deny protection to a soft drink firm against labeling

Edward Murillo

Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, November 3, 2022, p. 17

Minister Yasmín Esquivel Mossa presented her colleagues from the second chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) with a proposal to deny protection to a soft drink company, which challenges the reforms to the General Health Law (LGS) in force since November 2019, which require labels to be placed on the containers of their products that warn about excess sugars, calories and sodium in their content. The bill is scheduled for a vote next week.

The amparo was promoted by the company Desde el Corazón del Fruto SA de CV and it also challenges the modifications to the official Mexican standard NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-2010, which establish the rules for front labeling, which must be placed on in the form of black octagons, with white text in capital letters, warning of the content of excess substances that may harm the health of those who consume the product.

The company maintains that the LGS and the NOM violate its rights to equality and legal certainty, since it argues that not all food products are required to bear the labels, which constitutes an act of discrimination and harms the rights to work and free attendance.

The draft ruling proposes denying protection to the company, pointing out that the regulations for front labeling are constitutional, since they are intended to protect the rights to food and health of the consumer, by warning him that some product contains an excess of substances that could cause him harm.

The soft drink company also complained that the judge, to deny her protection in the first instance, based herself on analyzes made by the Pan American Health Organization, to support the need for this type of labeling as a basic tool to prevent diseases such as overweight and hypertension. .

Minister Esquivel Mossa indicated that, by resorting to said study, the judge only used his constitutional powers to collect scientific data that helped him to issue his ruling.

The constitutionality of the current labeling system in Mexico can be sustained, since it provides scientific sources on food and health in the country, as well as on the frontal warning labeling system implemented by the government, even the last document cited is a recommendation issued by the Pan American Health Organizationsays the project.

Just last month the SCJN received other protections, promoted by Nutrisa, McCormick, Del Fuerte and Herdez, against the reforms to the same NOM, these published in March 2020, for prepackaged food and alcoholic beverages.

These protections were also assigned in turn to Minister Esquivel Mossa.