REGULATION & POLICY | FOOD REFORMULATION
New research from Peru adds to evidence from Mexico and Chile that front-of-pack nutrition warnings are influencing what manufacturers put into packaged foods, not simply what consumers see on the label.
Key Takeaways
- Peru’s share of packaged foods exceeding at least one front-of-pack warning threshold fell from 61% to 55%, while beverages declined from 31% to 19% after implementation.
- Evidence from Chile, Mexico and Peru suggests front-of-pack rules can influence product formulation as well as the information presented to consumers.
- The design of labelling regulations can influence how manufacturers reformulate, including the ingredients they use to replace sugar, sodium or saturated fat.
- Reformulation presents opportunities for ingredient innovation, but manufacturers must balance nutrition targets against taste, functionality, processing performance, shelf life and cost.
Front-of-pack nutrition labels are designed primarily to help shoppers quickly identify foods containing high levels of nutrients such as sugar, sodium and saturated fat. Increasingly, however, research suggests their influence begins well before a product reaches the supermarket shelf.
Evidence emerging from Latin America shows how warning-label policies are moving upstream into formulation laboratories, where regulatory thresholds can become targets for product development.
The latest evidence comes from Peru.
Peru Adds New Evidence on Reformulation
A study published in BMJ Global Health on August 5, 2026 found significant changes in Peru’s packaged food supply following the implementation of mandatory front-of-package warning labels.
Researchers assessed 3,805 packaged foods and beverages sold in Peruvian supermarkets before and after the first phase of the policy took effect in June 2019.
The proportion of foods exceeding at least one warning-label threshold fell from 61% to 55%. Among beverages, the proportion declined more sharply, from 31% to 19%.
Researchers also reported reductions in products exceeding thresholds for sugars, sodium and saturated fat.
Importantly, the study followed products over time. This provided evidence that reformulation of existing products contributed to the changes, rather than the results simply reflecting new products replacing older ones on supermarket shelves.
Peru: Before and After Warning-Label Implementation
Percentage of products exceeding at least one warning-label threshold
Source: Lara-Arevalo et al., BMJ Global Health, 2026.
| Product category | Before implementation | After implementation | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Packaged foods | 61% | 55% | -6 percentage points |
| Beverages | 31% | 19% | -11 percentage points |
The beverage results are particularly notable. An 11-percentage-point decline, as reported by the study authors, represents a substantially larger movement than the six-point reduction observed across packaged foods, suggesting that some product categories may be more responsive to nutrient-threshold policies than others.
Peru’s findings, however, form part of a longer regulatory story in Latin America.
Chile Helped Set the Regulatory Direction
Chile was among the earliest countries to introduce prominent front-of-pack warning labels through its Food Labelling and Advertising Law.
The system requires black warning symbols on packaged products exceeding specified limits for nutrients and energy. Research examining the Chilean food supply has documented changes in the nutritional composition of packaged products following implementation, including a 2020 study in PLOS Medicine that found significant decreases in sugar and sodium content across several food and beverage groups after the law’s initial phase, and a 2025 follow-up study in BMC Medicine that found reductions in “high in” products and critical-nutrient content across all categories following full implementation.
Chile consequently became an important early test of whether front-of-pack regulation could affect more than consumer purchasing decisions.
Its experience suggested that manufacturers themselves could respond by changing products to avoid or reduce the number of warnings appearing on packaging.
That pattern would later become visible elsewhere in the region.
Mexico Shows How Policy Design Can Shape Reformulation
Mexico introduced its own front-of-pack warning system with an important difference.
In addition to warnings for excessive nutrients, the Mexican system includes precautionary statements for products containing non-caloric sweeteners and added caffeine.
A PLOS Medicine study published on March 18, 2025 examined around 1,000 leading packaged foods and non-alcoholic beverages following implementation of the Mexican system.
Researchers found reductions in at least one type of warning label across every food category studied. Among the notable changes were reductions in products exceeding sodium and saturated-fat thresholds.
The study also identified evidence of changes before implementation, suggesting that some manufacturers began modifying formulations in anticipation of the regulations.
That has implications beyond Mexico. A regulatory policy can begin influencing product-development decisions before its formal compliance deadline arrives.
The Mexican research also provides insight into how the design of a labelling system can influence the direction of reformulation.
Researchers reported reductions in non-caloric sweeteners in several categories and contrasted those findings with previous evidence of increased sweetener use in Peru and Chile, where those ingredients were not targeted in the same way.
The implication is significant for regulators and manufacturers alike. Front-of-pack policies may influence not only whether companies reformulate, but also which ingredients they select when doing so.
Taken together, the experiences of Chile, Mexico and now Peru point toward a broader effect of nutrition labelling policy: a threshold printed on a package can become a target in the formulation laboratory.
The Reformulation Trade-Off
Getting below a regulatory threshold does not necessarily mean reformulation is technically simple or commercially straightforward.
Sugar, salt and fat perform functions that extend well beyond the nutrition panel.
Sugar contributes sweetness, but depending on the product it can also influence bulk, texture, browning, preservation and freezing behaviour.
Salt affects flavour and can play important roles in preservation and processing.
Fat contributes structure, mouthfeel, flavour delivery and, in some applications, product stability.
Reducing any of these components can therefore trigger a series of formulation challenges.
A manufacturer reducing sugar, for example, may need to restore lost bulk or texture. Reducing sodium without sacrificing consumer acceptance may require alternative salt systems, flavour enhancers or taste-modulation technologies. Replacing saturated fat can alter melting characteristics, mouthfeel, stability and processing behaviour.
There are commercial considerations as well.
Alternative ingredients can increase formulation costs. Production parameters may require adjustment. Shelf-life studies may need to be repeated. New formulations must still perform at industrial scale and, perhaps most importantly, consumers must be willing to buy them.
These challenges may be particularly significant for smaller manufacturers with more limited R&D resources, technical capabilities and budgets for repeated formulation and sensory trials.
There is also a broader policy question.
Does reformulating a product to fall below a specific warning threshold necessarily make the overall product healthier?
Not always.
A manufacturer can reduce one targeted nutrient while making other formulation changes that do not necessarily improve the product’s overall nutritional profile. This makes the design of nutrient thresholds and the monitoring of unintended formulation consequences important components of effective nutrition policy.
Front-of-pack warnings should therefore not be viewed as a perfect proxy for overall nutritional quality. What the emerging research increasingly demonstrates is that they can create powerful incentives that manufacturers incorporate into product-development decisions.
Ingredient Innovation Moves Into the Regulatory Equation
For ingredient suppliers, those formulation challenges represent a growing commercial opportunity.
Reducing sodium while maintaining flavour can create demand for taste-modulation technologies, mineral salt alternatives and flavour systems.
Sugar reduction can involve combinations of sweeteners, fibres, bulking agents and texture solutions rather than a simple one-for-one replacement.
Saturated-fat reduction can require alternative fats, emulsification technologies or other approaches capable of maintaining structure, mouthfeel and stability.
The strongest opportunities may therefore lie with ingredient companies capable of helping manufacturers achieve regulatory targets without compromising sensory quality, processing performance, shelf life or cost.
This also changes the relationship between regulatory affairs and R&D.
Historically, nutrition labelling could be treated primarily as a compliance and packaging matter once a formulation had been established. Threshold-based front-of-pack systems increasingly bring regulatory considerations into formulation decisions much earlier in the product-development process.
Regulatory teams need to understand what R&D can realistically achieve. Product developers need to understand where regulatory thresholds are moving. Procurement teams need to identify ingredients capable of supporting reformulation at commercial scale.
The functions become increasingly interconnected.
Why It Matters
The latest evidence from Peru strengthens a pattern already emerging from Chile and Mexico: front-of-pack nutrition regulation can influence the composition of the food supply itself.
For manufacturers, this means monitoring labelling policy is becoming part of product-development strategy, particularly in markets where nutrient thresholds determine whether prominent warnings appear on packaging.
For ingredient suppliers, reformulation creates demand for technologies capable of reducing targeted nutrients while maintaining the characteristics consumers expect.
For policymakers, the evidence also brings a responsibility to examine not only whether manufacturers reformulate, but how they do so and whether those changes meaningfully improve the nutritional profile of the food supply.
The question for food companies is therefore changing.
It is no longer simply: Will this product comply with the labelling rules?
Increasingly, it is: Should we change the formulation so that the label changes too?
Sources
- Lara-Arevalo J, et al. Peru’s front-of-package warning label policy and changes in the healthfulness of the food supply: a pre-post observational study. BMJ Global Health, 11(8):e020809, published August 5, 2026.
- Salgado JC, Pedraza LS, Contreras-Manzano A, Aburto TC, Tolentino-Mayo L, Barquera S. Product reformulation in non-alcoholic beverages and foods after the implementation of front-of-pack warning labels in Mexico. PLOS Medicine, 22(3):e1004533, published March 18, 2025.
- Reyes M, et al. Changes in the amount of nutrient of packaged foods and beverages after the initial implementation of the Chilean Law of Food Labelling and Advertising: A nonexperimental prospective study. PLOS Medicine, published July 28, 2020; and Rebolledo N, Ferrer-Rosende P, Reyes M, Smith Taillie L, Corvalán C. Changes in the critical nutrient content of packaged foods and beverages after the full implementation of the Chilean Food Labelling and Advertising Law: a repeated cross-sectional study. BMC Medicine, published January 27, 2025.
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