Exploring Mexican Attitudes Toward the Front Labeling System for Food and Beverages

Abstract

Recently, the Mexican government implemented a simple labeling system that would apply to 85% of the food products. The aim of the system is to report high amounts of calories, sugars, sodium, fats and trans fats. Labels are displayed on the front of the package individually or in groups. No studies have been conducted to analyze public attitudes toward the labeling system. In order to fill this gap, the purpose of the study is to conduct an exploratory analysis of the Mexican attitudes toward the new labeling system on Twitter. The Twitter API was used to collect tweets published between January 01, 2020 to June 30, 2021. QSR NVivo 12 software was used to conduct thematic content analysis. The emerged themes were related to consumer education, impact on the industry and businesses, and support or rejection to the labeling system. A category emerged as reflection of the unique cultural traditions.