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Food labels education pack

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has launched an education pack­age to help consumers, schools and health professionals read food labels.

The package, which includes a seminar and interactive section on the FSANZ website explaining what food labels mean, a colour poster and a pocket guide to take shopping, was developed in line with FSANZ research that indicated con­sumers do not completely understand nutrition labels.

“We’ve found consumers will read and understand nutrition labels, but if they see there is 1100mg of salt in a product they do not know whether this is good or bad,” FSANZ spokesperson Lydia Buchtmann said.

The education package offers an alter­native to front-of-pack food label changes, supporting FSANZ research that with some prompting, consumers can under­stand the healthy eating advice on existing labels.

“Achieving the outcome of people mak­ing healthier choices is not just about chang­ing legislation and making food manufac­turers do something, it’s about managing consumers and helping them understand what labels means,” Buchtmann said.

www.foodstandards.gov.au

info@foodstandards.gov.au

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