The EU Parliament has voted against the labelling of food with “X% less” or “no added X” claims. The Food and Drink Federation, the UK’s leading voice for the food and drink industry, has expressed disappointment with the vote, which took place on 2 February 2012. The UK industry said it was concerned about the potential impact on industry’s discouragement of industry formulation of healthier foods. UK Food and Drink Federation’s response Barbara Gallani, Director of Food Safety... ...Read more »

One of Australia’s leading public health research bodies, The George Institute, has launched a new smartphone app which gives a Traffic Light rating based on the amount of total fat, saturated fat, sugars and sodium per 100 grams – green for ‘low’, amber for ‘medium’ and red for ‘high’. The new app, called ‘FoodSwitch’, is able to rate 20,000 packaged food products found in Australian supermarkets. The initiative is part of a new partnership with Bupa, one of Australia’s... ...Read more »

Two leading law experts have claimed that if proposed Palm Oil Labelling legislation were to be enacted in Australia, it would be afoul of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. The claim has been made in a research article authored by Melbourne-based lawyer Elizabeth Sheargold together with Associate Professor Andrew Mitchell  of the University of Melbourne. The article was published recently in the Melbourne Journal of International Law. The publication finding comes despite the Australian Government... ...Read more »

One of Australia’s certifiers of ‘free-range’ egg, beef and pork farms has lodged a complaint with the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over the labelling of Primo pork products as ‘RSPCA Free Range.’ The certifying organisation, Humane Choice, claims the RSPCA’s certification of the Primo pork products does not meet consumer expectation of ‘free range’ products, and that the brand is endorsed as free range by the RSPCA, and that the label is ‘misleading’. RSPCA... ...Read more »

The harmonisation of certain wine labelling and food regulation laws in Australia have helped improve the competitiveness of Australian industry, according to a new report from the Productivity Commission. A ‘discussion draft’ report, titled ‘Impacts of Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Reforms: Business Regulation and VET’, was released today by the Productivity Commission. The Productivity Commission is the Australian Government’s independent research and advisory body. The... ...Read more »

The European Parliament has voted in favour of putting in place tighter legislation on the composition of fruit juices, ensuring companies stick to stricter labelling guidelines. Companies will no longer be able to add sugar and sweeteners to drinks labelled as “fruit juices” under the EU’s new labelling rules. It is already industry practice not to add sugar to juices, and that practice is now being written into law. The new legislation will apply to all juice products regardless of whether... ...Read more »

The Australian State and Territory food ministers, under the umbrella of the Federal Government’s Forum on Food Regulation, propose to investigate a suitable front-of-pack nutrition labelling model as an alternative to the Traffic Light system or Dietary Intake system. Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is contemplating a new points-based labeling system for U.S. food and drink products. On Friday, Australian and New Zealand Ministers agreed to the need for an “interpretive”... ...Read more »

Australian and New Zealand ministers today put nutrition and preventative health at the heart of a plan to reform laws on packaged food and drink product labelling in Australia. Ministers met in Melbourne today to consider their response to the recommendations in the Food Labelling Review Report, Labelling Logic (also known as the Blewett report). This was the first meeting of the Legislative and Governance Forum on Food Regulation (Forum). The Forum on Food Regulation replaces the Australia and... ...Read more »

A lack of motivation and attention of consumers prevents nutritional information on food labels from impacting positively on food choices, a European study has found. The study was part of the ‘Food Labelling to Advance Better Education for Life’ (FLABEL) project, which provides research on consumer behaviour and nutrition labels to help guide industry players and policy-makers in Europe. The FLABEL consortium is comprised of academic experts, retailers, and not-for-profit organizations in the... ...Read more »

The Federal Government has announced today that it does not support the Traffic Light labelling system previously recommended by the Blewett Report. However, it does support the report’s recommendation on palm oil labelling in Australia. The Federal Government’s position was released today, ahead of the 9 December meeting of food and health ministers comprising the Australian New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council. Front-of-pack labelling Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon... ...Read more »