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 »

A report by Sydney based The George Institute for Global Health, released yesterday, says that despite the government’s Food and Health Dialogue, salt levels in Australian bread products have not changed since 2007. Bread has recently become a target for sodium reduction, with one fifth of daily salt intake for Australians coming through bread, and daily salt intake between five and 10 times that required for good health. The report comes just two days after the Australian Food and Grocery... ...Read more »

New research has cast concern over the sodium content of pizzas, with 94% of pizzas sold in Australia reportedly “overloaded with salt”. The pizza with the highest sodium was found by The George Institute to be Pizza Hut’s BBQ Meat Lovers, which – with 13 grams – provided more than double an adult’s recommended daily amount of salt. More than two thirds of takeaway pizzas examined contained double the daily recommended amount of salt for an adult, according to... ...Read more »