The consumer company announces that menus containing ultra-processed foods will be banned in children’s hospitals

Minister of Social Rights, Consumerism and Agenda 2030, Pablo Postenduy, announced on Wednesday that his ministry is working to exclude ultra-processed foods from children’s menus in hospitals.

The Minister affirmed during his participation in the national workshop within the World Health Organization’s plan to stop obesity, which was held at the Ministry of Health, “We will guarantee healthy menus free of ultra-processed foods for all children and adolescents who enter hospital centers.”

In addition, he added, the goal is also to ensure healthy menus free of ultra-processed foods in cafeterias and public dining rooms in hospitals. He added, “It is a next step, always within the perspective of policy coherence and assuming that each intervention in itself will not be sufficient to confront a challenge of this magnitude.”

Bostendoy reported that this step is part of the royal decree to ensure healthy eating in hospitals and nursing homes, which he added will be announced in the coming weeks.

“The issue of ultra-processed foods has become a topic of interest since the publication of an editorial in The Lancet, as well as a letter from the World Health Organization, which pinpointed the explosive growth in the presence of ultra-processed foods in diets as a threat to global public health,” he noted.

Postendoi believes that “inconsistency” in hospitals serving ultra-processed foods must be eliminated, because it is “harmful to health.”