Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Correspondence: Ada. Garcia glasgow. Food reformulation could contribute to sugar reduction, but policies across countries are not uniform. In a cross-sectional study, nutritional information, marketing strategies, and claims were collected from the food labels and packaging of products available in Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador and the UK.
Across countries, there were no differences in the sugar content of yoghurts. Sugar reformulation policies are required in Guatemala, Mexico and Ecuador. Keywords: sugar, food labelling, sugar reduction policy, children, food marketing.
Reducing the sugar content of manufactured foods aimed at children is a public health strategy to promote healthier food environments [ 1 , 2 ]. However, the degree of policy implementation varies across countries.
In the UK, sugar reduction in foods has been mainly channelled through taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages and a voluntary sugar reformulation programme. Latin American countries have made some progress on policy, but this is patchy. In Mexico and Ecuador, sugar reduction in foods has been limited to taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages [ 5 , 6 ], whereas countries like Guatemala have not implemented sugar reduction policies aimed at specific food groups.
These differences in policy provide an important opportunity to study the potential impact of the voluntary sugar reformulation programme aimed at specific food groups in the UK compared with countries without this policy.
