Competere - Policies for Sustainable Development

🇨🇱 Chile & Health Warnings: Time for a New Prevention Model?

Chile was the first country in the world to adopt black front-of-pack warning labels. Almost a decade later, a more ambitious question emerges: has it worked?

🔎 What evidence—and experience—suggest:
• Limits of standard tools: Obesity and NCDs are complex conditions that cannot be reduced to labels, taxes, or single nutrients.
• Impact still debated: Warning labels were introduced as innovative solutions, yet their long-term effects on health outcomes—and unintended consequences—remain under discussion.
• A new frontier: Science and technology are moving ahead. AI, wearable devices, digital health, and precision nutrition now enable a shift from standardized approaches to personalized prevention.

💡 This is Chile’s opportunity to lead again:
• From nutritional paternalism to personalized prevention
• From one-size-fits-all warnings to citizen empowerment

Not weaker public health. Smarter public health.

👉 Read the full article by Pietro Paganini, published on , one of Chile’s leading media platforms!

📱 Europe is digitising nutrition faster than it is teaching citizens to interpret it.

The EU-27 eHealth maturity score reached 83% in 2024. Universal access to electronic health records by 2030 is within reach. But access is not literacy: OECD data show digital health literacy among primary care users aged 45+ sits at just 26% for the higher educated and 18% for those with lower education. In Italy, 9% and 5%.

Meanwhile, the consumer side races ahead: 71% of adults have tried a calorie-tracking app, 39% are using one right now.
Systematic reviews link frequent use with disordered eating, body image concerns and compulsive exercise. Users describe fixation on numbers, rigid rules, app dependency and goals accepted from the algorithm without question

This is not nutritional intelligence. It is outsourced judgement. The policy question is not whether to use technology, but how to reply it so that citizens leave each interaction more capable, not more captured.

Europe has the instruments. What is missing is a clear principle binding them together: consumer-facing digital nutrition tools should demonstrate safety, accuracy and autonomy preservation, measured by gains in user knowledge, confidence and self-direction over time.

Innovation and individual freedom can coexist. They must.

👉 Read the full article by Dr. Anayanci Masis-Vargas on our website!

📣 SAVE THE DATE | A Smarter Prevention Agenda for a Healthier Europe

On 19 May, we will host a timely discussion at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the future of cardiovascular disease prevention in Europe — still the leading cause of death in the EU and a key public health priority.

Too often, the debate relies on simplified, prescriptive tools — from labeling systems to taxation — presented as quick fixes. But cardiovascular risk and obesity are shaped by a far more complex reality. As the EU advances its cardiovascular agenda, we will ask a key question: are current policy tools truly aligned with the complexity of prevention?

Together with MEP , policymakers, academics, experts and industry representatives, we will explore a more effective approach — one that puts citizens at the center.

📍 European Parliament, Strasbourg — Room Weiss S3.5
📅 19 May 2026 | 16:30–18:00

Agenda coming soon.
Seats are limited – Register here 👉

Strasbourg

🌳 Is zero deforestation still out of reach — or are we closer than we think?

The latest data from Global Forest Watch point to a clear shift: global forest loss is slowing, with a 36% decline in primary tropical rainforest loss in 2025. The challenge remains significant, but the direction is changing — driven by policies, investments, and stronger governance across producing countries.

Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, and Malaysia are all part of this transition. The focus is evolving: no longer just protection, but balance — aligning economic growth with forest conservation through tools like traceability, monitoring, and supply chain accountability. Countries once seen mainly as part of the problem are increasingly becoming drivers of change, with tangible progress achieved in just a few years.

Sectors that have long been under scrutiny, such as palm oil, are now among the most advanced in aligning with frameworks like the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The direction forward is increasingly clear: sustainability is most effective when economic and environmental goals are pursued together, rather than in opposition.

Read the full article on our website 👉