Food labels should give every Australian the information they need to make informed choices in line with the Australian Dietary Guidelines and should not be misleading or confusing.
Food for Health Alliance, along with leading public health and consumer organisations across Australia and New Zealand are calling for the food regulatory system, including rules for food labelling, to prioritise public health.
The labels that are on our foods are an important part of how consumers make decisions about what they buy and eat. It's important that labels are accurate, accessible and contain the information people need to know what's in their foods and if they are good for health, and that they aren't covered in misleading marketing claims.
Our report - Why Food Labelling Still Defies Logic: A Fifteen-Year Review - shows that food labelling reforms reccomended by experts have not been implemented.
It analyses progress over 15 years and highlights range of common problems across the entire food regulatory system.
Learn more
Food for Health Alliance, along with leading public health and consumer organisations across Australia and New Zealand, strongly supports the introduction of mandatory added sugar labelling on packaged foods and drinks.
There is a growing scientific and community concern around the impact of added sugar on health. With 72% of school age children and 47% of adults in Australia exceeding the recommended amount of sugar in their diet, it is important that consumers have access to accurate information about how much added sugar is in the food they buy.
Australians want this information. Recent research shows that 80% of Australian adults agree that added sugar labelling should be included on food products.
The Health Star Rating System (HSRS) is a voluntary, interpretative, front-of-pack labelling (FoPL) system which rates the healthiness of products across categories using a 5-star scale and aims to encourage consumers to make healthier food choices.
The HSRS was introduced in July 2014 as a voluntary scheme. In 2019 the Health Star Rating Advisory Committee completed the five-year review of the HSRS. Read the report.
Food for Health Alliance is calling for the HSRS to be man dated across all packaged foods so that consumers can easily compare products in each category. The HSRS also needs to be improved to more accurately penalise nutrients that consumers should b e avoiding or limiting in their diets.
Food for Health Alliance acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands on which we live and work. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
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