All products must have Spanish labels starting Tuesday, official warns

Santo Domingo.- Presidency Administrative Minister JoseRamon Peralta on Monday said the rule requiring Spanish labeling on allproducts, especially dairy takes effect starting Tuesday.

He said as of next week no imported products can enter thecountry without proper information in Spanish, "but aside from the HealthRegistry, they’ll be given a three-month period to also come with their labelingin Spanish."

"The important thing is that from now on everyDominican knows what they’ll consume, because it will have the contents inSpanish and if this product comes in another language, it must have anadditional label in Spanish, so you know what you’re buying," the officialsaid after a meeting in which the ministries of Public Health, Industry and Commerce,Agriculture and the Customs, Pro-Consumer agencies and the Aproleche (dairy) association,among others participated.

He said the measure that takes effect Tuesday aims to complywith the law and rules within the free trade agreements.

Dirty dairies

In response to Aproleche’s complaint there are 500 dairieswithout health registration in the country, Industry and Commerce minister Josédel Castillo said the Public Health Ministry manages a process to improve thesanitary conditions of those companies. "It has really been historicalfailures, there are thousands of applications pending, and that’s in theprocess of being solved, creating a one-stop window to address specific issuessuch as the case of household hygiene products."