01.Take action on food labels
Food labels - they're important to you
Please take action and complete our short food labelling survey and have your say about this very important issue.
A new review of Australia’s food labelling laws and policies was announced in October 2009. It's an opportunity to provide consumers with better information about the food we eat – but it also threatens the information Australians now take for granted.
The food labelling review was set up by the Commonwealth of Australian Governments’ Business Regulation and Competition Working Group to reduce regulatory burden on businesses. Some food manufacturers view food labelling laws as a burden, but they’re a vital ingredient in helping us make healthy and informed choices about what we eat.
CHOICE has successfully campaigned for nutrition information panels, detailed ingredient lists, country-of-origin labelling and labelling of genetically modified (GM) foods. So now we can all see what’s in our food, how healthy it is, and how and where it’s produced. There’s always room for improvement:
- red, green and orange traffic light labelling would help us make healthy choices quickly;
- health claims regulation would stop unhealthy foods advertising dubious health benefits; and
- loopholes in GM labelling laws should be closed.
But we also need to protect the important food labelling information we already have.
Food regulation – including labelling laws – is designed to protect public health and safety, provide consumer information and prevent misleading conduct. This review must not sacrifice the health and other interests of consumers in favour of watered-down food labelling laws or weaker industry codes that might suit some manufacturers in the food industry.
CHOICE will continue fight for food labels that Australians can trust. This means keeping the labelling that’s important to you, improving things that aren’t working, adding any new information that you need, and ensuring food regulators put consumers' needs first.