Principles behind evaluations of national food and beverage taxes and other regulatory efforts

Considerable controversy surrounds taxes and other regulatory policies (such as restricting marketing to children and setting mandatory standards for foods available in schools) being implemented around the world to discourage unhealthy eating. Thus, it is imperative that, where implemented, these policies are evaluated to the highest standard, considering the specific elements of how the taxes and regulations are designed, existing consumption trends and any weaknesses in the available data used. A crucial way to ensure a high-quality evaluation is to ensure that the evaluation team has the competency, skills and experience to conduct the evaluation. They must also be independent and have no conflicts of interest with regard to the findings. Another mechanism to support high-quality evaluations is to establish an independent advisory committee to provide oversight over the evaluation. Such mechanisms can (i) provide advice on the data utilized and the methods considered for each evaluation; (ii) review and provide rigorous feedback on preliminary results and methodologies and interpretation of results; (iii) review final papers and provide critical feedback; and (iv) provide credibility and transparency to the evaluation of implemented policies. Such a committee has been put into place to provide guidance to and oversight of the evaluations of implemented taxes and regulations in Latin America (e.g. Mexico's sugary beverage and ‘junk food’ taxes; Chile's mandatory front-of-package labelling). The Mexico beverage tax Evaluation Advisory Committee comprises global experts with knowledge and skills in public health, economics, nutrition, epidemiology and marketing along with broader policy scholars who understand critical contextual issues. No members have conflicts of interest with regard to any entity that might be affected financially by evaluation results. As members of an Evaluation Advisory Committee, we take our role very seriously to ensure that contributions to the literature on what and how policies can help prevent the spread of obesity and non-communicable diseases across our globe are robust and valid. We have applied stringent standards to this end. No conflict of interest was declared.