Duterte wants health warnings on packaging of sugary drinks – trade chief 

Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez (File photo by YANCY LIM / Presidential Photographers Division)

President Rodrigo Duterte wants health warnings on the packaging of sugary drinks, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said on Wednesday.

“He is really concerned that these products are being sold without warning,” Lopez said in a briefing at Malacañang Palace.

The trade chief said consumers must be “guided” in the proucts they buy through a health warning.

“He said there must be a warning on [sugary] products so that the ones buying and receiving can be guided,” he said.

Lopez said Duterte would want a warning on sugar-sweetened beverages like those seen on cigarette products.

“What he wants to say now is there should be a warning like just like the ones placed on cigarettes: ‘This can be dangerous to your health’,” he said.

Duterte, he said, believed that “there should be truth in advertising.”

“He is referring to truth in labeling,” Lopez said. “So the President has a directive that there should be a warning on sugar-sweetened beverages. If it’s high in sugar, it should be placed in front of the product, ‘containing high sugar’ or ‘it can be dangerous to your health’,” he added.

He said among those products that may contain health warnings include soft drinks, powdered juice drinks, and energy drinks.

Sugary beverages were among those products imposed with higher taxes under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) law. /atm