LAUNCH OF NUTRITION EDUCATION PACKAGE
Parliament House, 17 October 2001
Speakers:
Ian Lindenmayer, Managing Director, ANZFA
Dr. Rosemary Stanton, Nutritionist
Cathy McDonald, Sanitarium Health Food Company's Nutrition Education Services Manager
Ian Lindenmayer :
Firstly, good morning and welcome to everyone. My name is Ian Lindenmayer. I'm the Managing Director of the Australia New Zealand Food Authority and I'm delighted to have such a large roll up this morning, at a time when there are competing attractions.
This event comes as the culmination of a major job of work that has involved not only ANZFA staff, but also representatives from food retailers, the food industry, health professional organisations including the Dietitians' Association of Australia and Nutrition Australia and a number of other interested groups.
And the objective has been to assist in the development of means of making information about food more readily available to members of the public, particularly through food labelling.
We go back, over a couple of years, to the debate that occurred about the labelling of food. And there were markedly different views in the community, in Australia and in New Zealand, about the need for and the type of labelling that ought to be on foods. With some saying, well, the average customer goes into a store and simply selects what is a vaguely familiar image off the shelves and puts it into the supermarket trolley without really taking any account of what's on the label.
Others have said to us there is a very great need for consumers to have better information about what is on the labels of their foods, in order to assist them to make informed and healthy choices.
Indeed, research that has been done by ANZFA and other research that ANZFA has accessed, over a number of years, indicates that even when the consumer does not make a decision on a particular visit to a supermarket that is based upon reading the label in the supermarket, that judgement, that decision, is very often influenced by previous reading of the same label.
Or alternatively, by information that's been delivered by a third party. In some cases, a medical practitioner, a dietitian, a nutritionist. In other cases by a member of the family where that advice has come from the reading of a label and differentiation between products, on the basis of what that label is saying about the content of the food.
We recognise that the new food labelling regime involved quite substantial changes, substantial changes that would impose additional responsibilities on industry but which would also stretch the capacity of the consumer to understand. Stretch in the sense that some things were there, that were not there in the past. And consumers in the past have not always been entirely clear about the implications of various things that've appeared on labels.
And, I think, to the credit of all parties involved and, by this, I don't mean political parties, I mean all of the interested groups, there has been a high level of cooperation between retail and manufacturing, import, public health, consumer and other organisations, in guiding ANZFA in its work in developing material to go into a food brochure and into a food labelling poster.
And what it is we are here today, is to launch that poster.
The Parliamentary Secretary who is responsible for food regulation is Senator Grant Tambling. Senator Tambling has been unable to be with us in person today. He has commitments in the Northern Territory which preclude his being with us for this launch.
He has, however, generously put some coverage on tape, and we're going to open today's event with an introduction by Senator Grant Tambling.
Grant Tambling :
I'm pleased to join you, by electronic format, today because commitments out of Canberra stop me from participating personally.
Diet-related disease, such as heart disease, obesity and adult-onset diabetes is increasing in our community. And more and more people, and particularly consumers, want information at their fingertips when they make health choices.
Late last year, the food standard ministers agreed that nutrition panels should be on all packaged foods, so that consumers can see the amount of energy, the protein, the fat, the carbohydrates, the sugars and the sodium contained in their food.
It's important that consumers are aware of these changes to food labels. I'm delighted to launch the poster today, which has been developed by the Australian and New Zealand Food Authority. It has been sent to doctors and to retail outlets, so that consumers can fully understand these important changes.
This is an excellent cooperation between so many different groups, particularly Coles and Woolworths. Also the Retailers' Association, the Dietitians' Association of Australia, Nutrition Australia and the Australian Medical Association.
I'd also like to commend to you the other speakers that will follow me.
Ian Lindenmayer :
Thanks very much to Senator Tambling.
We have now the next speaker. Someone who is, I think, well known to just about every Australian, and someone who is certainly very well known indeed to ANZFA, Dr Rosemary Stanton.
Rosemary is very well known, I think, for a number of reasons. To ANZFA, she is I believe one of the most important contributors to the review and development of food standards.
I think most in the room will be aware that we never develop changes to food standards without a range of public consultations. On two occasions, in almost all instances, we invite interested stakeholders, experts, members of the public, to submit to us advice and data relevant to the issue we are considering.
And Rosemary is one of the most conscientious and important contributors, to the extent that we get from her information which is robust and opinions which are well and truly considered. And while we do not invariably agree with your advice Rosemary, it nevertheless invariably has a significant influence on us and, in many cases, the line we end up taking is one that Rosemary will have advocated to us.
She has also played an important part on expert committees. Expert committees are key, another key element of our process, and we use them whenever it is necessary to bring together a group of experts in a particular matter, to focus intently for a period of time on a matter that's under consideration.
She of course is very well known for her public appearances, through radio and television. So please join with me in welcoming Rosemary Stanton.
Rosemary Stanton:
Thank you very much Ian. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a pleasure to be here. And I find today especially joyous because it's actually been a long time coming, and it has actually come without the need for any 'dead bodies'.
I must explain that statement. About 20 years ago some of us working in public health nutrition, including Jo Rogers, who was the founder of the Australian Nutrition Foundation (now Nutrition Australia), pointed out the absurdity that dog food carried nutritional labelling when human food did not.
Speaking at one particular function I and, I think, Jo Rogers, called for labels for human foods to list the ingredients, including the percentage of added sugar and major ingredients, and for all packaged food to include a nutrition information panel.
One gentleman, who was employed at the time in the icecream industry, told me I would never get such labelling while he was alive.
At the time I replied that, if necessary, I would simply outlive him. Fortunately I'm happy to say that he is well and truly alive and we're going to have mandatory nutritional labelling, and a declaration of characterising ingredients.
And I think that particular gentleman, though I haven't actually asked him, would probably now think it was a good idea. Perhaps, next time round, we'll get the percentage of added sugar.
This hasn't come easily. There's been immense opposition from some sections of the food industry who did not want percentage ingredient labelling and wanted nutrition information panels to be voluntary. This, of course, will mean that they won't be present on many of the foods that actually are related strongly to diet related health problems.
Fortunately not all food companies think like that. And the Food Standards Ministers from the States, Territories and New Zealand, saw the great potential of giving consumers as much information about processed food.
I think it's vital that we retain a system whereby these ministers have a say in food law.
Nutrition matters - I guess you all expect me to say that. But the costs of diet-related health problems in Australia and New Zealand are running at billions of dollars a year - not to mention the individual costs and the associated pain and suffering that individuals have to endure. These problems inlcude obesity, type II diabetes (Senator Tambling called it adult-onset, but the name has been changed to type II diabetes because it's now occurring in children) as well as high blood pressure, gallstones, many types of cancer and osteoporosis. And I could go on.
As the population becomes more sedentary and eating patterns change, most of these conditions are increasing, some of them alarmingly. Type II diabetes, for example, has doubled in the last 20 years.
So Australia faces a huge blow-out in health care costs if we don't do something about the poor diets many people now choose - largely, I believe, under the influence of persuasive advertising.
Today I'm pleased that something is being done to help Australians at least know more about what is in their foods. And I'm delighted to launch a consumer education campaign designed to help people understand the new labelling laws which to make it mandatory for some important nutrients to be listed and the percentages of defining ingredients.
Many people will ignore the nutrition information panel and that, of course, is their right. But for the many people who care about the nutritional value of what they're eating, the information for some will be a revelation
Lots of people actually try to do the right thing when choosing foods. But if they don't have the information at their fingertips, it can be difficult, as one simple example can show.
Many of those who have high blood cholesterol try to do something about it by avoiding animal fats, which they know are a source of saturated fat. These people read ingredient lists, searching for things that say 'vegetable', as in 'vegetable fats', 'vegetable oil', or 'vegetable shortening'. They're trying to follow their doctor's instructions to give diet a go, before they turn to expensive cholesterol-reducing drugs.
Many of these people actually fail because, until now, they've not known that some of the vegetable fats have more saturated fat than beef dripping or lard.
The new nutrition information panel, which includes saturated fat, will help these people make appropriate and wiser choices. And if they actually make these choices, I'm confident their intake of cholesterol-lowering drugs could be reduced.
One day we may even be more helpful and tell them how much trans-fat is in the foods they're buying. There's always something on the list for next time.
I'd also like to pay tribute to ANZFA' s efforts to make life easier for small food companies, in particular, by introducing an Internet-based calculator so that companies can calculate the nutrition information panel for products by entering the recipe.
I think this will be enormously helpful. It amazes me, when I write kind letters to companies( I don't only write letters to ANZFA ) asking if they realise the information on their label is totally wrongor inappropriate or against any code of practice or regulations.
Many write back and say they didn't know that. And this applies not only to the information on packaged foods, but also to some of the media releases from some fresh food people.
Recently I queried the source of some information, that I found quite amazing, about strawberries. I was told there was a source and it turned out to be New Idea.
Now I'm not meaning to denigrate New Idea, but its not quite the evidence base that we would desire.
Some people don't know where to get information and, I think, being able to access this sort of information on the Internet will be very useful for many companies.
It's entirely appropriate that these events are being launched in National Nutrition Week. And I think it's up to all of us to help Australians choose a healthier diet and lifestyle. The advent of better labelling on packaged foods, and the widespread dissemination of this information through Woolworths and Coles and also through doctors surgeries, will make it much easier for the growing percentage of people who are interested in food and good nutrition, to make wise choices. Hopefully better health will follow. So it's thank you to ANZFA.
Ian Lindenmayer :
Thank you very much Rosemary. The next speaker is Miss Cathy McDonald, who is representing SANITARIUM.
Fairly soon, after the nutrition, the decision was taken by the ministerial council late last year to approve the nutrition and other labelling initiatives we had put forward, I was having breakfast with one of my sons. And large sons in their early twenties, tend to be large cereal eaters so it doesn't take long, didn't take long, he's left home since. But it didn't take long for a box of cereal to turn over. And he opened the next box of cereal, took out perhaps half a kilo or more of cereal, and flicked across the table to me a little card and said, 'ah, this is what you've required the industry to do.'
And I said 'what do you mean?' He said 'oh it's information on the nutrition of foods.' And I picked up the card and read it and said 'well, we won't actually be formally requiring that, in the sense of their being a legal obligation, but I'm delighted to see this company has already jumped the gun and provided that information, even though it wasn't mandatory.'
And I wrote, at that time, to the Chief Executive of the organisation, SANITARIUM, saying thank you very much for kicking off this service to your customers well in advance of it becoming legally mandatory for you to do so.
Since that time, SANITARIUM has been working, and others, have been with ANZFA, as I indicated earlier, to help develop among other things the poster which we are releasing today.
They have also been doing some quite important consumer research and, as I indicated earlier, there are differences of view, I know, around industry about what consumers think about the importance of labelling.
In this particular case, I'm delighted that some further hard evidence has been produced by an independent survey and that is going to be the main subject, I think, of what Cathy will be talking to us about today. Welcome Cathy.
Cathy Mcdonald :
Thank you Ian. As Ian said, what I'll be presenting about this morning is the research that SANITARIUM commissioned, to find out just what Australians are thinking about food labelling. And also our component of the labelling education initiative.
Before I do that, though, I'd just like to say a few brief words about Sanatorium's nutrition service, just to put in context why we're here today.
At SANITARIUM, we have a philosophy of improving life through better nutrition. And we believe that a healthy diet is one that is based on fruits and vegetables, breads and cereals, legumes, seeds and nuts.
In order to help people achieve this, we strongly believe that our role is not only to provide nutritious products, but also to offer information that encourages Australians to make their own healthy eating choices about the foods that they, and their families, eat.
And that's why this labelling education initiative, along with other education initiatives, is so important to us as a company.
To achieve our goal of encouraging all people to enjoy the benefits of a nutritious diet, SANITARIUM has the Nutrition Education Service, of which I'm the Manager. We have a team of fully qualified dietitians and we serve a dual role within the company.
Firstly, we are responsible for the company's corporate nutrition policy, to which all SANITARIUM products must comply. We provide support services for the business units that develop those products, including a nutrition communication service.
Secondly, we are responsible for the company's efforts in relation to nutrition education and support. We produce a range of free nutrition brochures and fact sheets and have dietitians available for people to speak with.
I would like too point out, though, that where an in-depth professional consultation is required, we refer people onto an accredited practicing dietitian.
So that's just a little about us, and why we're here. But let's now talk about food labelling.
Let's start with talking, for a moment, about the environment in which we are collectively launching this campaign.
We have a situation in Australia where people are constantly bombarded with product choices. There are up to 40,000 products available on supermarket shelves, with many thousands of new products joining these each year.
We also have the rising incidence of diet-related diseases, including heart disease, cancer and obesity which has been referred to already this morning.
Thankfully though, due to a number of education initiatives undertaken in the last decade, Australians are beginning to appreciate the role, not just between diet and disease, but also between diet and wellbeing.
To pain this picture a little further which, again, has been eluded to this morning, we now also have increased nutrition information available for Australians. And this has come through with the recent changes to legislation that occurred in November of last year, resulting in more foods needing to contain, or carry, a nutrition information panel. And this is, of course, very positive.
Where we do see a gap, though, and as you will see confirmed in the research that we will just discuss in a moment, the gap is in consumer access to knowledge and to tools, to understand and use that important information.
So it was out of this that our commitment was born, to equip people with the tools that they need to better understand food labels, in a way that would enable them to make informed choices about the foods they eat.
So how did we confirm that this is what Australians were thinking? Well we asked them. We conducted two phases of Newspoll research with regard to nutrition labelling. The first was conducted in November of last year, where Australians told us they wanted more information on food labels.
The second phase, which was conducted just a month ago, in September, confirmed that, while Australians wanted this information, they also wanted the tools to assist them in understanding and applying it to their food decisions.
So onto my main role this morning, which is to present to you the key findings of that second phase of Newspoll research which was conducted in September.
By way of background, the study was conducted with primary grocery buyers in the major capital cities in Australia, by random telephone questionnaire.
Well, what did we find? Fortunately, given the recent changes to food label legislation, almost all, in fact 96 per cent of shoppers, believed that it's important for food products to feature a nutrition information panel.
But the question must be asked 'do they read this information?'
Well, from the research, we know that three-quarters of main grocery buyers, which equates to four point six million people, state that they pay either a lot, or a fair amount, of attention to the nutritional content of the foods they purchase.
I guess what won't surprise many of us in this room, is that that figure is significantly higher among females than males. This difference between males and females is actually evident right throughout the research results although potentially, in my view, this gap may decrease over time, as males become more aware of the, and take a greater interest in the link between diet and disease prevention. And also if they play an increased role in food purchasing and preparation.
In comparison to the last statistic that told us how much attention people pay to the nutrition content of the foods they buy, only 60 per cent of grocery shoppers stated that they read the nutrition panel when they purchase a product for the first time.
So I guess that means that 40 per cent of people don't. So we still have a way to go in encouraging people to read the nutrition information panel.
But now to what we regard as the crunch statistic. Do people understand the information they read on food panels, nutrition panels? Of the 60 per cent of people who do read the nutrition panel, only one in five say they understand, or feel that they fully understand, the information on the panel.
Now I have heard it argued that, if consumers say they don't understand the information then don't give it to them.
But I guess what we're saying this morning is the complete opposite. This education campaign is about Australians right to information, and providing them with the tools to use that information.
But importantly we wanted to ask Australians if, indeed, they felt they would find this information helpful. So we found that an overwhelming 85 per cent of grocery shoppers wanted information to help them better understand the information on nutrition labels.
We asked the next question to find out whether, as a food manufacturer, consumers would feel comfortable in getting this information from us. And we were relieved to find out that this was, in fact, the case with 70 per cent of people surveyed claiming that they support SANITARIUM providing a service to speak to a dietitian regarding food labels.
So what has SANITARIUM done in response to these needs? Our nutritionists have developed a leaflet, which is hot off the press today actually, entitled Food Labels, Know What You Eat. This is a handy guide on the different aspects of nutrition panels and food labels, that's written in a way that we hope will make it easier for shoppers to find useful information and help them make informed dietary decisions.
We are putting together a package that includes this leaflet, as well as a copy of the ANZFA poster, along with some other general information on nutrition, and are keen to get this information out to as many people as possible, including those in regional areas who may have limited access to information.
We are also supporting this information by making available the Dietitian Resource Service by phone, to answer specific questions that people may have.
Now obviously our part is only one aspect of this labelling education initiative, and one that we believe works well in tandem with ANZFAs in-store and GP waiting room initiative.
The bottom line is that, by undertaking this campaign, we are working together to give Australians the opportunity to make informed choices about the foods they and their families are eating. And ultimately to reduce the burden of diet-related disease in this country.
But, of course, this isn't just about avoiding diet-related disease. I firmly believe that good nutrition has the potential to truly enhance life and wellbeing. And that's something I'm sure we would like to see all Australians enjoying.
In closing, let me thank ANZFA and Nutrition Australia for this opportunity to work together on what I believe is a truly exciting education initiative. Thank you.
Ian Lindenmayer :
Thank you very much Cathy. That is indeed very interesting, very relevant, information that you've added today to our knowledge about consumers, their wish for and their need for and use of information on labels.
We recognised, when we developed the Joint Food Standards Code that, in undertaking a task as large as that, we were not going to get, literally, everything right. And, indeed, there are some things on which we are now taking corrective action. In most cases, fairly minor things.
We also recognise that, as time goes on, there will be new science, other new inputs that will cause ANZFA and ANZFA' s successor organisation in the near future, when we metamorphosise to become Food Standards Australia New Zealand, to say we must have another look at what it was we put forward to ministers in the year 2000, to see whether or not it is still relevant and whether we ought to build on that.
And I'm stressing therefore that this is a, this is not just something to keep my nutritionists and other scientific staff in work. This is in fact an attempt to ensure that food regulation keeps fully abreast with the best of scientific knowledge, the best of clinical advice and, in general, best practice in terms of the regulation of food.
Today I think it's very important that I pay tribute to those who have worked with us, in making and bringing about this poster. And, at least as importantly, in getting this poster out over the course of forthcoming weeks and months, to those who will use it.
Firstly, thank you to Nutrition Australia, the Dietitians' Association of Australia and the AMA for their important role, not least of which in assisting in the dissemination of this.
The fact that this will be in all, we hope anyway, in all doctors waiting rooms, all general practitioners waiting rooms, will be I think a very important contribution.
Similarly, we are very grateful to retailers, ARA, the Australian Retailers' Association, and NARGA, the National Association of Retail Grocers of Australia, have offered to distribute, assist in the distribution. And in particular to Coles and Woolworths who have undertaken to ensure that the poster is displayed in their stores throughout Australia.
That will provide on-the-spot access to this guidance that can be accessed by consumers, by customers, while they're in the store contemplating making a purchase. And that will be a very important initiative and I pay tribute to them for making that space available in the relevant information areas of their stores.
I also pay tribute to the AFGC, the Australian Food and Grocery Council, and to SANITARIUM for their contributions both to assisting us in devising what we are doing and, in the case of SANITARIUM, for the work that Cathy has described to us today. That will also be, I believe, a very important contribution to helping consumers make informed choice.
Last but not least, I should pay tribute to staff within ANZFA. There has been a very large job of work done, both by the Nutrition and Labelling Program, and Public Affairs.
So finally it remains for me to invite you to have a look at what our nutrition information panel ready reckoner system will do, for those who want to use it, in order to work out what they need to put on a label in terms of a nutrition information panel.
We saw it as important that small business, in particular, be given assistance to make the necessary computations to go from their recipe which, of course, every manufacturer knows, through to what actually needs to appear on the label.
The magic of this is that no more knowledge is needed than what is in one's food, what one's recipe is. Simply putting that data into the calculator produces a print-out of what is actually required to be on the nutrition information panel, in the format in which it's to be there. It really takes the angst and the cost and the delay out of meeting that requirement.
And I'm delighted with the product that's been developed and delighted that we're going to be able to make it free of charge, through the ANZFA website.
Finally can I invite everyone to join us for morning tea. It's at the other end of the room. Unfortunately I cannot say that the morsels of food which come with the liquid carry appropriate labelling, to allow you to make an informed choice about whether to have two or three of whatever they are.
That might be something that might be considered in the future, by some future generation of regulators. But it's certainly not something required at the moment.
But happily, from a little over a year from now, on virtually all classes of packaged foods, there will be a much more substantial body of information to equip consumers to make informed and healthy choices.
Thank you very much for your presence here today.