Mildly Interesting

If I had to guess, it's likely due to the obesity problem they were having

I don't follow Mexican politics closely, but this could be part of an effort to curb obesity. I've heard they introduced taxes on sugary drinks for this, so this might be another avenue.

If people are wanting cheap snacks, and private companies are only making unhealthy ones, you can introduce regulations to micromanage what they can produce, or you can introduce a complex taxation process to disincentivize sugar snacks. Or you can introduce your own product that meets a perceived unmet demand in an underserved market.

That might be one of the best bang par buck moves possible from their health care department.

Because they tried leaving it to the private sector and people got unhealthy from eating cheap refined carbs?

Providing healthy abordable food should be the first job of any governement.

Ehhh I mean I don't see how. Nestlé is the absolute scum of the fucking earth, but idk what they could do to stop the Mexican government. Nestlé's a bunch of fuckers, the lot of them, but they're not going to sell stuff cheaply or at a loss.

This is a really neat system for making your uneducated populace healthier. People can't be bothered to read so a single number to indicate something is unhealthy is rad.