Food Labelling To Tackle Obesity

The Territory Opposition is urging State and Territory Health Ministers to adopt a traffic light food labelling system.

The traffic light label system uses red, amber and green dots to indicate levels of salt, sugar and fats in a product.

"The obesity epidemic stalking our children is one of the great health challenges of the 21st century,” says Terry Mills, Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

"Poor diet is a component of the obesity plague that, left unchecked, will reduce life expectancy for future generations.

"Introducing simple, easily understood labels that contain a colour warning system has the capacity to reduce the amount of junk food are kids are eating.

"Consumers are currently faced with an array of confusing and often deliberately misleading nutritional information.

"It's almost necessary to have a degree in food science to decipher all of the information presented on food packaging.

"A traffic light system will counter deceptive labelling practices by providing consumers with essential nutritional information about the product at a glance.

"In the past my efforts to encourage the Territory Government to adopt a similar system in school canteens and to provide education and community leadership on the issue, were met with childish ridicule from the current Minister for Education, Paul Henderson.

"I hope the Health Minister, Chris Burns, is more in tune with the needs of Territorians - almost a quarter of young Territorians are either overweight or obese.

"Our kids are getting fatter, not fitter, by the day and we need practical measures to combat the obesity plague.

"Promoting nutritious food is an excellent place to begin turning around this growing health problem.”

2007-08-30