Food with different labels will still taste as sweet; following concern from food manufacturers and some consumer groups that the implementation of new labelling laws will cause a huge financial burden, the Australia-New Zealand Food Authority has announced its intention to review the label proposals in preparation for a debate by health ministers in December. The concessionary plans to remove sugar from the list of ingredients required on the new nutrition labels have also sparked their fair share of criticism, however.
The debate was bought into the spotlight recently when Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain bars were attacked by a television advertisement promoting Dick Smith Foods, which claimed that the snacks contained a considerably higher sugar content than the producers’ own brand equivalent Nutra Bites. US cereals giant Kellogg has challenged the advert for using its trademark without permission but it has also made it clear that it supports the new plans to delete sugar from the obligatory ingredients list.
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Nutrition experts from Brisbane are already preparing a report on the importance of keeping sugar content on the new labels, however, and early indications show that the majority of consumers support them. Rachel Bradford, spokeswoman from the Nutrition Society of Australia, has expressed further disapproval for the plan, arguing that sugar content labelling is crucial for diabetics and people on low-calorie diets. The food authority attempted to allay health fears by stressing that when the laws are introduced in the next two years, they will remain open to fine-tuning should any new medical evidence come to light.
