Latin American Alliance of Food and Beverage Industry Associations (ALAIAB)

The ALAIAB is a business organization formed by the trade associations that congregate Food and Beverage Industries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, this Alliance counts with twenty four associations of fifteen countries of the region. Given its associative, non-profitable character and foreign to any political or religious activity, the ALAIAB provides representation and references on technical, scientific or political forums that require a connection with the food and beverage industry, at a regional or international level.

Members

The Board of Directors is established every two years by the General assembly of Associates and it is conformed by a President, three Vice Presidents, a Treasurer, a Secretary, three Members and a Prosecutor.

Currently, the Board of Directors is composed of different representatives of business associations from the diverse sub-regions of America and the Caribbean: CONMEXICO for North America, CACIA (Costa Rica) for Central America, and Andi Alimentos (Colombia), Chilealimentos (Chile), COPAL (Argentina), ABIA (Brazil) and ABRESA (Peru) representing South America.

Innovation and Health

According to the eating habits of society and the transformations that these undergo, the food and beverage industry innovates permanently, depending on the new and varied nutritional needs of the population.

Knowing the importance of the food industry, the ALAIAB permanently invests in the development of new products. This way of producing has allowed the increase of efficiency and productivity in order to improve the availability, access and nutrition.

The industry has been key to the fortification programmes from all over the region, that has considerably reduced the amount of diseases and, recently, in the innovation of its product portfolio, which addresses the effects of allergies, or that reviews, develops or reformulates to reduce the content of sodium, fats and sugars for those populations that require it.

Consumer information

Food manufacturers and consumers, have the challenge of promoting well-structured consumption decisions. This is why informative and educational nutritional labeling is recognized as a valuable tool to facilitate the understanding of the nutritional composition of products by consumers.

The regulatory framework in this area is key and must be accompanied by comprehensive educational processes. Hence, the ALAIAB member associations promote balances, reasonable regulatory schemes, based on scientific evidence and, above all, that promote the presentation of information in a simple and clear way, easy to understand and apply, and thus do not lead to error, confusion, or prejudices about the nutritional relevance of a food or its nutrients.

Responsible advertising and marketing

Advertising has been subject to self-regulation for some time, which is why ALAIAB encourages the use of these schemes as a tool to promote balanced eating habits.

Likewise, they encourage their member associations to use existing good practices as a reference framework in their countries, and in this way, the regional industry contributes to one of the objectives established in the global strategy against obesity and overweight.

Healthy lifestyle

The food industry has understood in depth the multifactorial origin of non-communicable diseases such as obesity and overweight.

Due to the relationship of these pathologies with malnutrition, among many other factors, the industry recognizes the need to be part of the various solutions, one of them being the promotion and formation of active and healthy habits and lifestyles.

It is for this reason that in ALAIAB, the key factors for the promotion of health are the promotion of the best business and union practices that encourage nutritional education and physical activity.

Contact

(506) 2220-3031

San José, Costa Rica

email: mrodriguez@alaiab.org

References

https://www.alaiab.org