Junk food labelling to combat obesity crisis

Kelmeny Fraser
February 27, 2013
The Courier-Mail

GRAPHIC images of fat on junk food labels, similar to anti-smoking shock tactics, could be resorted to in a desperate bid to curb the state’s obesity crisis.

Almost a third of Queensland adults were measured as obese in 2011-12, making Queensland the obesity capital of the nation.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said such a campaign could mirror the successful anti-smoking labelling and advertising tactics of recent years.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said measures used to slow the rate of tobacco use should be examined to see how it could be applied to the alarming growth in obesity rates in Queensland.

Health Minister Lawrence Springborg stopped short of any immediate move to introduce shock labelling but has threatened to step in with tough regulations around the sale of junk food should a new public health campaign and industry self-regulation fail to cut Queensland waistlines.

The Newman Government has launched a new $7.5 million ad campaign using images of fat as it appears around vital body organs.

But in an exclusive interview, Dr Young said there was a case for the graphic images to appear on junk food packaging.

Dr Young, who has also launched a free help hotline for the obese and overweight, said advertising of junk food aimed at children also needed to be looked at as she believed it was setting Queenslanders up with poor eating habits for life.

And while graphic images on junk food packaging could be a future option, she said stronger health messages about the risks of being overweight needed time to work first.

Mr Springborg has put manufacturers on notice to improve their food nutrition or face government stepping in. The fitness-conscious minister said major retailers and manufacturers also had to improve their promotion of healthy food over high energy snacks.

“I am anti-nanny state because I think people have been regulated to death,” he said. “But there are some things where government cannot dismiss stepping in and this is one of those.”

Mr Springborg said any move to regulate junk food would need to have a national approach.

However, Dr Young said there was a precedent set for the states initially introducing their own restrictions around the sale and advertising of cigarettes.

Obesity Policy Coalition executive manager Jane Martin said Australia’s largely self-regulated approach to junk food advertising was flawed.

“It is time government did step in,” she said. “Why should we allow the processed food industry to continue to target them (children) in this way?”