March 6, 2009

In The News: Aisle-Worthy

An interesting piece of legislature passed in my home country of Argentina yesterday.

All supermarkets in Buenos Aires are now required by law to house healthier options and diet-specific products in clearly marked aisles.

This means, for instance, that all gluten-free products must be in the same aisle (as opposed to spread out in different aisles depending on what food category they belong to.)

Additionally, product varieties that classify as "lower in fat/calories/sugar" must all be housed in one aisle. Under this new law, low-fat mayo, lower-in-sodium soups, and reduced-sugar cereals would be clustered together.

Legislators say the goal is to "facilitate consumers' search for products that meet their dietary needs."

I like this idea quite a bit.

While by no means a perfect solution (ie: how about housing 100% whole grain products? Who decides what makes a product "healthy" enough to be placed in these aisles? What if a product is lower in fat but has the same amount of -- or more -- calories?), it's a start.

I also appreciate the decision to make food shopping slightly easier -- especially for those avoiding certain ingredients due to allergies and intolerances.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's pretty interesting. I didn't know you were from Argentina. I love it there... I lived in Mendoza and San Luis for a couple years from 2001-2003. Loved it!