New Australian food labelling system to fight obesity

The Federal Government’s introduction of a five-star rating system for food labelling “is a win for public health and consumers” and will help Australia fight the obesity epidemic.
The new voluntary health star rating system announced recently (which if not embraced by manufacturers within two years, will become mandatory), will rate food between half and five stars according to how healthy they are, making it easier for consumers to make healthy food choices.

The guidance offered through this system can help people to make healthy choices for themselves and their families – it is easy to read and the advice is based on a scientific nutrient profile system.

It is estimated that 500 million adults worldwide are obese and 1.5 billion are overweight. In Australia, the latest figures show that morbid obesity has increased by 68% over the last decade and chronic dietary-related diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, are also on the rise (News Item University of Wollongong, 18 June 2013).