As Australia reels under the weight of obesity and related diseases one of the first steps towards prevention could be forcing fast food restaurants to display kilojoule counts on their menus said NSW Premier Kristina Keneally.
According to latest laws all NSW major fast food retailers, with 20 or more stores in NSW or 50 or more stores nationally, will be required to display kilojoule information from February 1. This law to be introduced into Parliament this week, gives fast food sellers like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and KFC 12 months from February 1 to comply after which huge fines would be levied for outlets in breach of the new code.
Ms Keneally inaugurated the first of its kind in the nation at a McDonald’s restaurant in Sydney. The move has the support of the NSW Heart Foundation which called it a “logical first step” but also wanted to include information on saturated fat and salt in the future. Ms Keneally agrees. “Certainly, from the Heart Foundation and other organizations there is a concern that we do need to provide consumers with a full range of information. Salt and fat is part of that… What we have said here is that displaying kilojoules is a first step,” she said.
She assured that compliance with the new laws would be monitored by a reference group that emerged from last August’s Fast Food Forum. “They will also look at how additional information, such as salt and fat can be presented to consumers,” she added.
Pointing out the problem Ms Keneally said that more than half of adults were overweight or obese and 25 per cent of children were overweight or obese and many families continued to chose fast food restaurants. This move would allow for informed choices.
Tim Gill, the principal research fellow at the Institute of Obesity, Nutrition and Exercise of the University of Sydney however feels that the industry was unlikely to accept labeling for individual nutrients, salt and saturated fats etc. as readily as energy labeling, because many fast-food items exceeded the daily recommended intake for salt or saturated fat. Dr Gill said publishing energy values may be a concession on their part.
According to Greg Johnson, the chairman of the Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance it was “good that governments are accepting their responsibility and announcing legislation that improves the ability of consumers to make informed choices about what they eat.” He also said that this display would lead “to [healthier] competition in the industry to reformulate [items].”
Jane Martin, senior policy adviser to the Obesity Policy Coalition, a Victorian group feels that energy information was important in discouraging people from “upsizing” to a bigger portion, but this masked “the nutritional value of the food”. Salt and fat content display is also important.
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