LATAM Food & Beverage Report
Regulatory shifts, labeling trends, and sustainability rules reshaping the food and beverage sector across Latin America.
One-minute takeaways
Food and beverage regulation is expanding well beyond sanitary controls. Here is the gist of what is moving across the region.
New activity spans product composition, labeling, taxes, sales restrictions, food safety oversight and packaging sustainability — recently updated in Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic.
Warning labels keep consolidating as the region’s main consumer-information tool, with octagons as the dominant model and new debates on ultra-processed foods, sweeteners and trans fats in Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador.
Selective taxes on sugary, flavored, alcoholic and ultra-processed products are being implemented, expanded or discussed as both public-health and fiscal tools — Brazil’s proposal to widen its selective tax is a key example.
Sales and advertising restrictions are focused mainly on schools and children, with Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Peru already applying binding rules.
Packaging policy is shifting from isolated single-use plastic bans toward broader circular-economy and Extended Producer Responsibility frameworks — Chile remains the most developed model.
Government priorities, fiscal needs and electoral cycles could reshape the pace of reform — key topics to follow include deregulation in Argentina, tax and school-food debates in Brazil, and EPR in Chile.
Key regulatory themes
The report maps the main regulatory developments affecting food and beverage companies in Latin America, distinguishing measures already in force from initiatives still under discussion.
- Taxes on unhealthy foods
- Front-of-pack labeling
- Packaging circularity & EPR
- Trans fat reduction
- Additives in children’s products
- Red No. 3 / Erythrosine
- Food safety oversight
- Trade agreements
Two contrasting stories in the same region
Argentina bucks the trend
Argentina stands out as the region’s main case of regulatory simplification, contrasting with the broader push toward stricter labeling, fiscal and sustainability requirements. A bill in Congress seeks to repeal National Law No. 27,642 on Healthy Eating, which regulates front-of-package labeling.
PAHO and the WHO agenda
PAHO continues to shape the region’s food agenda through initiatives such as The Americas Free of Trans Fats, reflected in stricter sodium, sugar and trans-fat rules in Mexico, Argentina and Colombia. At WHA79, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay helped position ultra-processed foods as a global health issue.
What to watch next
The Brazil-led WHO proposal to establish global guidelines on the marketing of ultra-processed foods, with a focus on digital advertising, children and adolescents, ahead of a possible 2027 vote.
Implementation of the EU–Mercosur agreement, which may influence market access, technical standards, sanitary requirements and sustainability obligations for food and beverage products.
The 2026 electoral cycle in Brazil and Colombia, and Peru’s presidential runoff, given their potential impact on regulatory continuity, fiscal measures and food labeling.
U.S.–Cuba policy developments and spillovers from U.S.–Venezuela policy, including sanctions and compliance requirements that could affect trade and logistics in exposed markets.