Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons (Latin American Food Warning Seals)

• Stamp one identical black octagon for each nutrient over the limit on the front face, with a thin black rim and a white cut-out margin (in Chile the rim sits inside the margin, in Uruguay a black filete closes it, in Mexico the octagon stands on a white square) so that it reads on any background, and print it in solid black (CMYK 0/0/0/100 in Chile) and white only.
• Fill the octagon with the verdict in white bold grotesque capitals (Arial Bold in Chile, Mexico and Colombia), 'ALTO EN' or 'EXCESO' over the nutrient, filling the prescribed text area, with the health ministry's signature in a smaller line at the bottom.
• Take size and position out of the designer's hands: scale the seal to the area of the principal face (1.5 to 3.5 cm in Chile, 1 × 1.11 to 3.5 × 3.88 cm in Mexico), place it in or near the upper right corner, set several seals side by side in a fixed order, and never cover them (Uruguay also forbids repeating them as a decorative pattern).
• Leave the brand's colours, logotype and product photography in place, so that the black-and-white seal reads as a foreign, official layer cutting across the commercial design; the red, yellow and blue in the palette stand in for that brand layer and are prescribed by no law.
• In Chile, Mexico (from 1 April 2021) and Argentina, remove child-directed appeal from any pack that carries a seal: no cartoon characters, mascots, celebrities, toys, games or digital downloads aimed at children, leaving the logotype and the product photograph to sell the food; the characters move to packs without seals (in Santiago, child-directed strategies on unsealed cereal packs rose from 8% to 30%), some of which boast 'Yo no tengo sellos'.
• Shrink the sign rather than drop it on small packs: one octagon with the number of excess nutrients on Mexican packs of 40 cm² or less, and 'MINSAL' in place of 'Ministerio de Salud' at Chile's minimum 1.5 cm size.

Santiago, Chile: Law 20.606 on the nutritional composition of food and its advertising (published in the Diario Oficial on 6 July 2012) and health-ministry Decree 13 (signed 16 April 2015, published 26 June 2015, in force 27 June 2016), which added article 120 bis to the Reglamento Sanitario de los Alimentos, set the black 'ALTO EN' octagon's sizes in Cuadro No. 1 and drew its construction, colour and typeface in Diagram No. 1. Peru (from 17 June 2019, under Law 30021), Uruguay (Decree 272/018 of 29 August 2018, compulsory from 1 February 2021), Mexico (NOM-051 amendment published 27 March 2020, first phase from 1 October 2020), Argentina (Law 27.642, published 12 November 2021) and Colombia (Resolution 2492 of 13 December 2022, which replaced the circular 'alto en' seals of Resolution 810 of 2021 with black 'EXCESO EN' octagons signed 'MINSALUD', in force from June 2023) adopted their own octagonal seals. The sign came out of research funded by the health ministry: public-health, nutrition and marketing researchers at INTA (University of Chile) and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, working with a design company experienced in food packaging, reviewed tobacco and alcohol warning studies, held focus groups with women who buy their household's food and with adolescents, drew 24 prototypes and tested 15; a black-and-white stop sign beat a black-and-white hand and red-and-yellow versions, and the tested wording 'Excess of' became 'ALTO EN' for legal reasons. Its design lineage is the stop sign, the tobacco warning and the standards-manual method of construction grids, CMYK values and size tables

1. Decreto 13 (Ministerio de Salud, Chile), Modifica decreto supremo Nº 977, de 1996, Reglamento Sanitario de los Alimentos, promulgated 16 April 2015, published 26 June 2015, in force 27 June 2016 (LeyChile id 1078836; FAOLEX copy https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/chi155737.pdf): article 110 bis (advertising to children under 14), article 120 bis (black octagon with white border, 'ALTO EN', 'Ministerio de Salud', size table from 1.5 × 1.5 cm to 3.5 × 3.5 cm, symbols side by side) and Diagram No. 1 (construction proportions, CMYK 0/0/0/100, Arial bold, 'MINSAL' at minimum size, suggested upper right placement)
2. Ley 20.606 sobre composición nutricional de los alimentos y su publicidad (Chile), published 6 July 2012, Diario Oficial No. 40305 (https://www.leychile.cl/Consulta/obtxml?opt=7&idNorma=1041570)
3. Modificación a la Norma Oficial Mexicana NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-2010, Diario Oficial de la Federación, 27 March 2020, evening edition (https://dof.gob.mx/2020/SEECO/NOM_051.pdf): 3.45 (sello: black octagon with white contour), 4.1.5 (no children's characters, animations, cartoons, celebrities, athletes, pets or interactive elements on packs with seals), 4.5.3.4.2 (numbered seal for faces of 40 cm² or less), 4.5.3.4.6 (upper right corner and order of seals), 7.1.3 and 7.1.4 (sweetener and caffeine legends), Appendix A (Arial Bold, size table, 'x' proportion unit) and transitory article (phases from 1 October 2020)
4. Ministerio de Salud Pública (Uruguay), Manual para la aplicación del rotulado frontal de alimentos (2022) (https://www.gub.uy/tramites/sites/catalogo-tramites/files/2022-08/ROTULADO_FRONTAL_ALIMENTOS_2022_MSP_MANUAL_APLICACION_.pdf): Decree 272/018 of 29 August 2018 and Decree 34/021; black octagon with white capitals, 'exceso' and the nutrient over 'MSP', white surround and black keyline, seals without gaps, no decorative pattern, compulsory from 1 February 2021
5. El Comercio (Lima), 'Octógonos de advertencia: desde hoy rige su implementación en los productos', 17 June 2019 (https://elcomercio.pe/peru/octogonos-advertencia-hoy-rige-implementacion-productos-noticia-ecpm-645970): 'Alto en sodio', 'Alto en azúcar' and 'Alto en grasas saturadas' octagons with 'evitar su consumo excesivo', and a separate warning for products that 'contiene grasas trans'
6. Wikipedia (Spanish), 'Ley de Promoción de la Alimentación Saludable' (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_de_Promoci%C3%B3n_de_la_Alimentaci%C3%B3n_Saludable): Argentina's Law 27.642, promulgated 27 October 2021, published 12 November 2021, 'EXCESO EN' octagons and restrictions on child-directed packaging
7. Wikipedia, 'Food labelling and advertising law (Chile)' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_labelling_and_advertising_law_(Chile)): phased limits of 26 June 2016, 2018 and 2019, and the citation of Andrew Jacobs, 'In Sweeping War on Obesity, Chile Slays Tony the Tiger', The New York Times, 7 February 2018 (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/health/obesity-chile-sugar-regulations.html)
8. Wikipedia, 'Food labeling in Mexico' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_labeling_in_Mexico)
9. Mediano Stoltze F., Reyes M., Smith Taillie L., Correa T., Corvalán C., Dillman Carpentier F. R., 'Prevalence of Child-Directed Marketing on Breakfast Cereal Packages before and after Chile's Food Marketing Law: A Pre- and Post-Quantitative Content Analysis', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16(22):4501 (2019), doi:10.3390/ijerph16224501: child-directed strategies on 'high-in' cereals fell from 43% to 15%, and rose on cereals that did not qualify as 'high-in' from 8% to 30%
10. Reyes M., Garmendia M. L., Olivares S., Aqueveque C., Zacarías I., Corvalán C., 'Development of the Chilean front-of-package food warning label', BMC Public Health 19:906 (2019), doi:10.1186/s12889-019-7118-1 (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6615240/): study funded by the Chilean health ministry, run by INTA (University of Chile) and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez 'in collaboration with a design company with experience on designing food packages'; review extended to tobacco and alcohol warnings; focus groups with women responsible for household food purchases and with adolescents; 24 prototypes, 15 tested; black-and-white beat red-and-yellow, the stop sign beat the hand; 'excess of' replaced by 'high-in' for legal reasons
11. Niamh Michail, 'Chile's food regulations are reducing unhealthy child marketing tactics', FoodNavigator, 9 December 2019 (https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2019/12/09/Chile-s-food-regulations-are-reducing-unhealthy-child-marketing-tactics/): Tony the Tiger banished from Kellogg's Frosties (Zucaritas) in 2016; Arcor's Cereal Kidz, free of warning labels, can use cartoon characters and boasts 'Yo no tengo sellos'
12. Resolución 2492 de 2022 (Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social, Colombia), 13 December 2022, amending Resolución 810 of 16 June 2021 (https://www.minsalud.gov.co/Normatividad_Nuevo/Resoluci%C3%B3n%20No.%202492de%202022.pdf; English translation by the Global Food Research Program, https://www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/English_RESOLUTION-2492-DECEMBER-13-2022_final.pdf): article 32.3 (black octagon with white border, 'EXCESO EN', 'CONTIENE EDULCORANTES', white capitals in Arial Bold, 'MINSALUD', Figure 6), 32.4 (upper right third of the front, size table), article 37 (the earlier 'sello circular') and article 40 (six months to comply after publication)
13. Global Food Laws database (globalfoodlaws.georgetown.edu), entries for Colombia's Resolution 810 of 2021 (https://globalfoodlaws.georgetown.edu/documents/resolution-adopting-technical-criteria-for-front-of-pack-nutritional-labeling/: circular warning labels reading 'alto en') and Resolution 2492 of 2022 (https://globalfoodlaws.georgetown.edu/documents/resolution-adopting-technical-criteria-for-front-of-pack-nutritional-labeling-partially-amending-resolution-810-of-210/: octagonal seals reading 'exceso en')
14. Sagentia, 'Amendment to nutrition and front-of-pack labelling for processed foods in Colombia', 20 January 2023 (https://sagentia.com/blog/amendment-to-nutrition-and-front-of-pack-labelling-for-processed-foods-in-colombia/): Resolution 2492 rules in effect from 15 June 2023
15. Corvalán C., Reyes M., Garmendia M. L., Uauy R., 'Structural responses to the obesity and non-communicable diseases epidemic: Update on the Chilean law of food labelling and advertising', Obesity Reviews 20(3):367-374 (2019), doi:10.1111/obr.12802, as cited in the bibliography of the 2020 NOM-051 amendment
16. Pan American Health Organization, 'Front-of-package labeling' (https://www.paho.org/en/topics/front-package-labeling): Chile, Peru, Israel, Uruguay and Mexico listed as adopters of the nutrition warning approach

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