Abstract

ALONSO, Carolina Mutilva. Availability of foods and drinks that comply with Law 19,410 regarding school snacks in Montevideo supermarkets, in 2015. Enfermería (Montevideo) [online]. 2018, vol.7, n.2, pp.129-165. ISSN 1688-8375.  https://doi.org/10.22235/ech.v7i2.1670.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the availability of foods and drinks that can be included in school snacks in compliance with Law 19,140 in Montevideo supermarkets, in 2015. Supermarket chains whose branches were scattered in the city were selected for convenience, so as to cover a large part of the area and to reach different socioeconomic sectors of the population. This is an observational, descriptive and transversal study. The studied population was the total of available foods corresponding to Groups 1 and 3 of such law which have to comply with the nutritional criteria required to be included in school snacks. The information sources were the lists of foods provided by supermarket or their official websites, Nutriguía technical specifications and nutrition facts labels of products found in supermarket aisles. 803 food products were evaluated. In 80% of them it was not possible to evaluate all the nutritional criteria required by law, since the mandatory declaration of nutritional labeling does not include refined sugars, a criterion that is taken into account in order to categorize the snacks as appropriate for educational centers. Of these, 59% were Not Suitable for school meals. In the remaining 20%, the six nutritional criteria of the law were evaluated; and of these, 77% of the products were Not Suitable for school meals. Therefore, a high number of products are Not Suitable for this purpose. Caloric intake, total and saturated fats were the nutritional criteria exceeded in most of the evaluated products. There is a long way to go on the part of the industry to overcome these limitations and offer products in supermarkets that comply with the law.

Keywords : Food supplies; Product Sale; School feeding; Healthy eating.

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