Drop in weight among Chilean children recorded after food policies introduced

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-06-12 10:30

International

Photo by Ishaq Robin on Unsplash

Legislation tackling food labelling and advertising launched in Chile in the mid 2010s has been linked to a 2% reduced risk of excess weight in early childhood, according to international researchers. The 2016 Chilean Food Labelling and Advertising Law was one of the earliest of its kind, the researchers say, and to monitor its impact, the researchers collected data on the BMI of over 300,000 school children in preschool, kindergarten and year 1 from 2012-2017. The researchers say children exposed to the restrictions during their early education had a lower chance of having excess weight compared to those who were already past year 1 when they were enacted. The earlier the children were exposed to the restrictions, the lower the chance of excess weight, they say. The researchers say that while the overall reduced risk was modest and the evidence was weaker for girls, the finding supports these types of measures to target childhood obesity.

News release

From: The Lancet

The Lancet: Combined food policies, including labelling and advertising bans, have real-world impact on reducing child obesity, first evidence plausibly shows

First plausible causal evidence at the national level that coordinated multiple food policies - including front-of-package warning labels, marketing restrictions and school food regulations - reduces childhood obesity.
Children in school 6-18 months after the law was introduced had approximately a 2% lower probability of excess weight than children that age before the introduction of the first phase of the law.
While the impact may seem modest, authors say these findings provide crucial evidence-based support for policymakers worldwide who are considering food policies to address the childhood obesity epidemic.

Chile’s complementary set of policies targeting food products high in fat, salt and sugar plausibly reduces the risk of school age children being overweight or having obesity, finds a study published in The Lancet.

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research The Lancet, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: The Lancet

Organisation/s: Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Chile

Funder: Bloomberg Philanthropies Grant.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.