Kellogg’s is desperate to save Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam from Mexico’s healthy food rules — rules the U.S. may soon copy.

Kellogg’s is waging a war here over Tigre Toño and Sam el Tucán.

A 2019 policy requires companies that make unhealthy foods to include warning labels on the front of any boxes they sell in Mexico to educate consumers about things like excess sugar and fat. Any food with a warning label — like Kellogg’s Fruit Loops or its Frosted Flakes, which typically contain more than 37 grams of added sugar in a 100-gram serving — is also banned from including a mascot on its packaging.

    • cybervseas@lemmy.world
      33·
      2 years ago

      Yeah because childhood obesity and diabetes is no biggie. Gotta make sure all that corn gets sold…

      • cerement@slrpnk.netEnglish
        8·
        2 years ago

        considering they’re still not required to enter the “% daily value” for “total sugars” …

        • Swiggles@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          5·
          2 years ago

          Isn’t the daily amount like 0 you need? So Infinity % for any added amount?

          This is actually an honest question, because you can easily cover your daily needs with other carbs and even those are technically not necessarily as it can be metabolized by fat in your body, but no point in bending the truth here. The body needs sugar one way or the other, but none of them are processed sugars and should probably come from rice, potatoes or bread instead.

          • cerement@slrpnk.netEnglish
            3·
            2 years ago

            “% daily value” is supposedly something like “percent recommended daily value” and it’s a bizarre balance between minimum to avoid deficiencies and maximum to avoid overdose as determined by a board of corporate employees with no training in medicine, diet, or nutrition

            so, while there’s no minimum for “total sugars”, most who are actually trained in diet and nutrition seem to agree you really shouldn’t be going over 25–30g total sugars …

            FDA does provide a daily value for “added sugars” – 100% daily value is 50g (10-ish teaspoons) which sounds a little excessive to me …

            • Swiggles@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
              1·
              2 years ago

              At least it sounds almost reasonable if the sugar comes from fruits. That’s roughly the amount (25g sugar) you ingest when eating 2 apples.

              Thank you for the interesting, but concerning answer.

  • Sanjuaro@lemmy.world
    15·
    2 years ago

    Chile started using these some years back. I honestly like them. We also did the mascot ban as well, so no Tony the Tiger, and even Pringles cans have a censored face

  • baruchin@lemmy.world
    9·
    2 years ago

    This is one of the few things this mexican government has done right. I think this was copied from Chile, and should be copied in many countries including the U.S. F*ck those greedy obese factories.

  • xkforce@lemmy.world
    8·
    2 years ago

    Kellogg would be rotating in his grave. The dude was OBSESSED with the healthfulness of cereal (or at least his weird version of it) and his company namesake basically peddles candy in cereal form to children.

  • athos77@kbin.social
    5·
    2 years ago

    Wait, wait - does that mean we’re going to lose the Coca-Cola polar bear?!

    [Actually, they’ll probably just release the Christmas version in a collectable polar-bear-shaped bottle to get around this… ]

    • xkforce@lemmy.world
      31·
      2 years ago

      Lol… the modern Santa Claus image etc. was born of Coca Cola’s marketing

  • Anonymoose@infosec.pubEnglish
    3·
    2 years ago

    I saw this while in Mexico and really liked the idea. I was then immediately bummed out when realizing almost everything had that label on it and buying food without excess sugar and salt was a lot trickier.

  • Zagorath@aussie.zoneEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    Any food with … more than 37 grams of added sugar in a 100-gram serving is also banned from including a mascot on its packaging

    Damn, that’s really good. Sounds a little bit like the plain packaging laws many countries have on cigarettes, which have proven to be extremely effective in the decade since they were first rolled out. It’s obviously a bit more limited, but it’s still a great move.

      • Drusas@kbin.social
        2·
        2 years ago

        Some people really don’t. They grow up with commercials telling them that the cereal is “part of a balanced breakfast” without understanding that that means the cereal should be a small part of the breakfast.