(The Center Square) – The World Health Organization will propose a model to help countries decide which prepackaged foods to tax and regulate.
Critics worry this will raise grocery prices and trigger lawsuits.
This week, WHO opened public comments on its draft Integrated Food Profiling Model for Regulatory Measures. Public comments are due by Nov. 27.
The approach would look at the nutritional value, colors and sweeteners in food products. Countries could use the guide to tax foods, restrict marketing, require certain packaging labels, and guide public food purchases.
Taxpayers Protection Alliance executive director Ross Marchand said this will raise consumer prices.
He called the idea “a clear recipe for soaring regulatory and litigation costs that will almost certainly get passed down to shoppers at the register.”
“New regulations drive up prices on everyday staples and distort markets, while benefits to consumers fail to materialize,” he added.
Marchand said the approach would also cause lawsuits.
Last year, San Francisco sued major manufacturers over the health impacts of ultra-processed foods, as The Center Square previously reported. The lawsuit says companies engineer and ma...