Draft bill 416.

Summary.

The draft bill aims to require disclosure of the estimated calorie content of foods offered on the menus of restaurants and other food outlets. It links that information to the promotion of healthy eating habits and consumers’ right to clear nutritional information. Its provisions would apply to all restaurants and other establishments that prepare and sell food for immediate consumption within Panama.

Within that scope, the text expressly requires restaurant chains to state the approximate calorie content of each food item or dish offered to consumers on their menus. The figure would have to appear clearly and visibly next to the name of the food item or product. This presentation requirement covers printed menus, display boards or chalkboards, and digital menus. The information would thus accompany the description of the food across the formats used to present it to consumers.

The Ministry of Health would prepare and publish technical guidelines for estimating the calorie content of foods offered on menus. In preparing those references, it could use international nutritional databases or develop tools adapted to Panama’s food context. The ministry would also be the authority responsible for supervising and enforcing compliance with the proposed law. The draft bill further assigns it the task of issuing the regulations needed to implement the law in coordination with the Consumer Protection and Competition Defense Authority (Autoridad de Protección al Consumidor y Defensa de la Competencia). Those regulations would establish the applicable penalties for noncompliance. Separately, the text requires the Executive Branch (Órgano Ejecutivo) to regulate the proposed law.

Establishments subject to the framework would have 18 months from the issuance of the regulations to make the changes needed to comply. The text provides that the proposed law would take effect on the day after its promulgation. The compliance period is therefore tied to the regulations, while the effective date is tied to promulgation.

The public bodies involved are the Ministry of Health, the Consumer Protection and Competition Defense Authority, and the Executive Branch. The proposal could be of interest to or affect restaurant chains, other establishments that prepare and sell food for immediate consumption, consumers of that food, and those who produce printed menus, display boards or digital menus for those establishments.