Background – Legislation for regulating nutrition, health and related claims on foods in Australia and New Zealand is currently under review. It has been proposed that in future, all claims be regulated through the Food Standards Code (1), as the current co-regulatory system comprising the Food Standards Code and Code of Practice on Nutrient Claims (2) is not fully enforceable, and may inadvertently lead to consumer deception.
Objective – To determine a) the number of Australian foods currently carrying nutrition, health and related claims, and; b) of those that do, the proportion that meet the current provisions in the Food Standards Code and Code of Practice on Nutrient Claims (the co-regulatory system).
Design – A comprehensive survey of the labels of 4,171 foods in a large suburban supermarket in central Sydney, NSW between August and September, 2005. All food label information was entered into a custom-built, MS Access database for collation and statistical analysis.
Outcomes – A total of 2,611 (62.6 %) foods carried some kind of nutrition, health or related claim. Of these, 872 (33.3 %) foods carried a claim that did not comply with the co-regulatory system. The most common reason for a breach was failure to list the total fat content in the nutrition information panel (47.1%). Of the products that did not make any nutrition, health or related claims, only 296 (7.1%) breached the co-regulatory system.
Conclusion – A large proportion of foods currently making nutrition, health or related claims are in breach of either the current Food Standards Code or Code of Practice. As such, our data provide support for the placement of all nutrition, health and related claims in the Food Standards Code and the abolition of the current co-regulatory system. This will provide much stronger protection for consumers in Australia and New Zealand.
References
1 Australia New Zealand Food Authority. Food Standards Codes – Volume 2. Canberra: Information Australia, 2000.
2 National Food Authority. Code of Practice. Nutrient claims in food labels and in advertisements. Canberra: National Food Authority, 1995.