Curbing unhealthy eating to reduce obesity

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDSep 8 2011

Traffic Light Food Tracker mobile app

The Obesity Policy Coalition suggests a new mobile app called Traffic Light Food Tracker that will enable users to work around the food industry's hesitation in supporting traffic light labeling. Traffic light labeling marks foods high in fat, sugar and salt with red warnings, while green labels are for healthy options. Users only have to key in their food item's fat, sugar and sodium quantities and save each item in their “pantry” within the phone app.

Earlier this year, a review of Australia's food labeling laws failed to specifically recommend a mandatory traffic light labeling system for unhealthy food items, saying such a course of action should only be done on a voluntary basis. The Federal Government is due to respond to the recommendations for compulsory traffic light labeling for packaged food items later this year.

Obesity Policy Coalition spokeswoman Jane Martin says the system has been shown to improve people's eating habits. “We believe if traffic lights were mandatory on all packaged foods it would guide and empower consumers to make healthier choices for themselves and their families - that's certainly what the evidence shows,” she said. “It has been used in a voluntary capacity in the UK. For a category like ready meals with the traffic lights, sales of the healthy ready meals went up and sales of the unhealthy ready meals went down... Our research shows consumers want to know how much salt, sugar, saturated fat and total fat, is in the products they buy,” she added.

Melanie McGrice from the Dietitians Association of Australia also says there should be mandatory front-of-pack food labeling on all kinds of food products. But she stresses legislation, as well as the Traffic Light Food Tracker app, must show to consumers both the nutritional benefits and unhealthy content of each food item. “From what I've heard there may be a few issues with [the app]. You're never going to find anything that's perfect but I think what's important is we find something that's evidence-based,” she said. “As for which is the way to go, I think we still need a bit more research into the best option.”

Earlier this year, Australian Food and Grocery Council spokeswoman Kate Carnell described the traffic light labeling concept as overkill, noting this would mean extra cost to manufacturers, which will be passed on to consumers. “Already in Australia we have a front-of-pack labeling system on over 4,000 products that consumers are taking to very well, so it seems totally unnecessary,” she said.

Diabetes Australia Victoria, the Cancer Council Victoria and the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) comprise the Obesity Policy Coalition.

Australia on unhealthy foods

Draft documents show Australia among a group of countries lobbying to cut commitments to regulate the production and marketing of unhealthy foods, angering public health officials and ignoring the recommendations of its own committee on preventative health. The government has joined the US and Canada in lobbying to remove from the UN's declaration on non-communicable diseases a paragraph that agrees to implement controls on junk food manufacturing.

The director of the World Health Organisation's Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University, Boyd Swinburn, said Australia was diluting an important policy document and failing to offer leadership to developing nations worse affected by non-communicable disease.

“There are two camps. One is the G77 - the lower middle-income countries. They are trying to make this document as strong as possible because they are the ones that are suffering,” Professor Swinburn said. “Then you have America and Australia and the EU trying to make it weaker, trying to water it down … All of these areas that require action, that are in this document, bang up against industry.”

Professor Rob Moodie, the chair of global health at the University of Melbourne and non-government representative on the delegation travelling to the UN meeting, said he had high hopes for the political declaration Australia would ultimately sign.

But he also expressed concerns about industry lobbying. “The Food and Grocery Council has had a very strong role and influence in the way food policy is seen in Australia,” he said. “They wanted to be part of the solution; I haven't seen that yet.”

A spokesman for the council said the body had “not had input into the drafting of the declaration”. The UN's non-communicable diseases meeting will begin in New York on September 19.