By Margot O’Neill
While consumers are waiting for the Federal Government to re-launch its healthy star food labelling website, a world-leading health research body has stepped into the vacuum.
The Sydney-based George Institute for Global Health is tonight launching its own website that rates 55,000 packaged food products commonly found in supermarkets.
“We got sick of waiting for the Government’s website,” said Professor Bruce Neal, a senior director at the institute.
“Poor diet is now the leading cause of premature death and disability in Australia.
“One of key changes over past 50 years has been the progressive addition of salt, fat and sugar in our food.
“We wanted to give people the chance to see how many stars their favourite products get and compare it to other products.”
The George Institute calculated the stars based on the government-backed formulae which measures salt, saturated fat, sugar and kilojoules plus any positive nutrients.
More stars mean a healthier product.
The Coalition Government pulled down its original Health Star Rating website in February, saying it was mistakenly published. At the time, public health advocates accused the Government of caving in to industry pressure.
A spokesperson for Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash could not say when the website would be re-launched but that it would happen “when the campaign to inform consumers and industry … is ready”.
The spokesperson said the Minister “does have some concerns” about the George Institute website because “food companies are best placed to calculate star ratings for their products” as they may hold information not available to the Institute.
The Health Star Rating label would be displayed on food packages voluntarily over the next five years and “should be considered the primary source of information”, the spokesperson said.
Some products should start displaying star labels in the coming months.
‘Glacial’ progress in reducing salt, fat and sugar
Professor Neal said despite five years of Federal Government negotiations with industry to reduce salt, fat and sugar in processed foods, progress is glacial.
A review by the George Institute of salt reduction in bread, cereal and processed meats found some improvement, including a 9 per cent reduction in salt in bread and a 25 per cent drop in cereals.
But many more food categories are yet to be targeted by the Government and virtually nothing has been done about sugar and saturated fat.
“The time has come for government to exclude industry from negotiations which set health targets,” said Professor Neal, who is a longstanding advocate of working with industry.
“We have the fox looking after the chook house. What we need is health experts setting health targets and industry experts to help figure out how to achieve them.”
The spokesperson for Senator Nash said there had been “significant progress” reducing salt and saturated fat in foods although “we recognise there is still a way to go”.
Australian Food and Grocery Council chief Gary Dawson said the George Institute’s study on salt reduction showed the success of collaboration with industry.
“Industry has shown that it can work collaboratively, effectively and voluntarily,” he said.
“It shows the willingness of food companies to step up. It doesn’t make any sense to react to a successful program by taking a big-stick approach.”
Professor Neal said the George Institute website uses data that is accurate to December 2013 and any new nutritional information will be updated.
The George Institute is also running a public trial to test the effectiveness of the new star labelling system.
* Note: The George Institute is using data that is accurate as of December 2013. Lateline found that sodium for Cocoa Pops is now 465mg. The George Institute says that does not change its star rating and will update the information.
Watch the full report on Lateline at 10:35pm on ABC.