Abstract
Background/Objective:
Since 2006, the Australian food industry has promoted its front-of-pack (FOP) food labelling system—the Daily Intake Guide (DIG)—as a success story of industry self-regulation. With over 4000 products already voluntary featuring the DIG, the industry argues that government regulation of FOP nutrition labelling is simply unnecessary. However, no independent audit of the industry’s self-regulation has ever been undertaken and we present the first such Australian data.
Subjects/Methods:
Energy-dense nutrient-poor (EDNP) snacks were audited at nine Australian supermarkets, including biscuits, candy, ice creams, chocolates, crisps, sports drinks, energy drinks, flavoured milks, sweetened juices and soft drinks. In these categories nutrition labels were recorded for 728 EDNP products in various packaging sizes.
Results:
The DIG was displayed on 66% of audited EDNP products but most of these (75%) did not report saturated fat and sugar content. Only generic supermarket EDNP products were likely to display saturated fat and sugar content, compared with very few branded products (48% vs 4%, P<0.001). Branded products not displaying fat and sugar content contained on average 10-times more saturated fat than those displaying such (10% vs 1% DI, P<0.001) and nearly twice as much sugar (21 vs 13% DI, P<0.05).
Conclusions:
Most Australian manufacturers of EDNP products have adopted the DIG; consistent with industry claims of widespread adoption, but almost all still avoid displaying the high saturated fat and sugar content of their products by opting for the ‘energy alone’ option, violating the industry’s own voluntarily guidelines and highlighting serious weaknesses with the industry’s self-regulation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics. National Health Survey 2007-08. Cat 4364.0. ABS: Canberra, 2008.
Rangan AM, Schindeler S, Hector DJ, Gill TP, Webb KL . Consumption of 'extra' foods by Australian adults: types, quantities and contribution to energy and nutrient intakes. Eur J Clin Nutr 2009; 63: 865–871.
Rangan AM, Kwan JSL, Louie JCY, Flood VM, Gill TP . Changes in core food intake among Australian children between 1995 and 2007. Eur J Clin Nutr 2011; 65: 1201–1210.
Savige GS, Ball K, Worsley A, Crawford D . Food intake patterns among Australian adolescents. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 2007; 16: 738–746.
Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance Front of Pack Labelling: An Agreed Public Health Position 2009 Available at http://www.cancer.org.au/File/PolicyPublications/FOPL_Final_Consensus_Statement_23March09.pdf (Accessed on 07 August 2012).
Blewett N, Goddard N, Pettigrew S, Reynolds C, Yeatman H . Labelling Logic: Review of Food Labelling Law and Policy. Department of Health and Ageing: Canberra, 2011 Available at http://www.foodlabellingreview.gov.au/internet/foodlabelling/publishing.nsf/content/48C0548D80E715BCCA257825001E5DC0/$File/Labelling%20Logic_2011.pdf (Accessed on 07 August 2012).
Australian Food and Grocery Council Welcome to AFGC, 2010. (cited on 14 November 2011); Available from: http://www.afgc.org.au/.
Australian Food and Grocery Council. Response to Department of Health and Ageing Labelling Law and Policy Report (September 2011). Australian Food and Grocery Council: Canberra, 2011.
Australian Food and Grocery Council. Traffic light labelling sends all the wrong signals. Australian Food and Grocery Council: Canberra, 2009.
Australian Food and Grocery Council CHOICE’s ‘simple and nutritious’ recipes get red lights (Media Release Friday, 23 September 2011).
Australian Food and Grocery Council. Daily Intake Guide Labelling Scheme: Style Guide 2009. Australian Food and Grocery Council: Canberra, 2009.
Food and Drink Federation GDA Labelling Industry Style Guide. Revised on May, 2012. Available from http://www.fdf.org.uk/publicgeneral/GDAStyleGuide.pdf.
US Food and Drug Administration. ‘Nutrition Keys’ Style Guide: FDA-Regulated Foods. US Food and Drug Administration: Washington DC, 2011 Available from http://www.fmi.org/docs/regulatory/NutritionKeysStyleGuide.pdf (accessed on 06 August 2012).
Australian Food and Grocery Council 3,000% increase in the number of supermarket products with front of pack labelling, Media Release 2010; Australian Food and Grocery Council: Canberra.
Borgmeier I, Westenhoefer J . Impact of different food label formats on healthiness evaluation and food choice of consumers: a randomized-controlled study. BMC Public Health 2009; 9: 184.
Kelly B, Hughes C, Chapman K, Louie JCY, Dixon H, Crawford J et al. Consumer testing of the acceptability and effectiveness of front-of-pack labelling systems for the Australian grocery market. Health Promot Int 2009; 24: 120–129.
Malam S, Clegg S, Kirwan S, McGinigal S BMRB Social Research. Comprehension and use of UK nutrition signpost labelling schemes. Food Standards Agency: UK, 2009.
Sanitarium Australia. Front of Pack Labelling: Which Traffic Lights? 2011 Available at http://www.sanitarium.com.au/∼/media/sanitarium/about-us/traffic-light-report.ashx (Accessed on 07 August 2012).
Australian Food and Grocery Council Australian Food and Grocery Council Submission to the Department of Health and Ageing Food Regulation Secretariat in response to the Review of Food Labelling Law and Policy, 20 November 2009. Australian Food and Grocery Council, Canberra, 2009.
Kelly B, Hughes C, Chapman K, Louie J, Dixon H, King L, On behalf of a Collaboration of Public Health and Consumer Research Groups Front-of-Pack Food Labelling: Traffic Light Labelling Gets the Green Light. Cancer Council: Sydney, 2008.
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand Final Assessment Report Proposal P293: Nutrition, Health and Related Claims. FSANZ, 2008 . Available at http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/foodstandards/proposals/proposalp293nutritionhealthandrelatedclaims/ (accessed on 06 August 2012).
IBISWorld G5111–Supermarkets and other grocery stores in Australia–Major Companies, 2011 . Available from http://clients.ibisworld.com.au/industryau/Majorcompanies.aspx?indid=1834 (Accessed on 17 November 2011).
Australian Food and Grocery Council. Code of practice for food labelling and promotion. Australian Food and Grocery Council: Sydney, 2011 Available from http://www.afgc.org.au/industry-codes/cop-food-labelling-a-promotion.html (Accessed on 06 August 2012).
Carter O, Mills B, Phan T . An independent assessment of the Australian food industry’s Daily Intake Guide ‘Energy Alone’ label. Health Promot J Austr 2011; 22: 63–67.
van Kleef E, van Triip H, Paeps F, Fernández-Celemín L . Consumer preferences for front-of-pack calories labelling. Public Health Nutr 2008; 11: 203–213.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Carter, O., Mills, B., Lloyd, E. et al. An independent audit of the Australian food industry’s voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme for energy-dense nutrition-poor foods. Eur J Clin Nutr 67, 31–35 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2012.179
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2012.179
- Springer Nature Limited
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Improving customer decisions in web-based e-commerce through guerrilla modding
Nature Machine Intelligence (2021)
-
Inter-sectoral action to support healthy and environmentally sustainable food behaviours: a study of sectoral knowledge, governance and implementation opportunities
Sustainability Science (2018)
-
The Influence of Nutrition Labeling and Point-of-Purchase Information on Food Behaviours
Current Obesity Reports (2015)
-
Auditing the Australian front-of-pack food labelling scheme
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2013)