By Alice Downey | Health Editor

The NSW Government is calling for calories on Australian menu boards. Image: Lynn Silver

The NSW government is calling for national food labelling reforms to curb rising obesity levels in Australia.

Joanne Smith, Director of the Centre for Health Advancement at the NSW Department of Health says that the NSW government has prepared a submission to the National Review of Food Labelling.

“The proposal is that companies would be required to publish kilojoule content, saturated fat, trans-fats and sugar content on menu boards at the point of sale,” she says.

The Food Labelling Review is an initiative by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council (Ministerial Council).

It is a comprehensive review of food labelling law and policy in Australia and is chaired by Dr Neal Blewett.

The NSW government’s suggestions are modelled on reforms that were first implemented in New York, and now under Obama’s new healthcare scheme are mandatory across the U.S.

All fast food chains in the U.S with 20 or more outlets must now display the calorie content of foods on menus as prominently as price.

While some Australian fast food outlets currently post nutritional information on packaging or online, nutritional labelling at the point of sale means that people can make informed decisions about their food before they purchase it.

Listen to this story:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The Vice President of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Steve Hambleton says that one of the major issues affecting obesity in Australia is health literacy. Many Australians don’t know the nutritional value of the foods they eat.

According to Dr Hambleton, “People don’t understand how many calories are in very simple foods and even chocolate bars and so forth… I think they’d be surprised how many hours of exercise it takes to work off those calories.”

Professor Boyd Swinburn, the Director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention says that rising obesity levels are a direct result of our increasingly high calorie intake.

“At the moment 2 out of 3 adults are overweight or obese and at least 1 in 4 children… this is almost certainly being driven largely by increases in energy intake, by food intake,” he says.

Associate Professor Philip Leslie from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in the U.S, conducted a study into the effect of calorie posting at Starbucks on calorie consumption.

“Our main finding from this research is that calorie posting on menus at Starbucks and all other chain restaurants in New York City led to a 6% decrease in average calories per transaction,” he says.

Although 6% is not a huge decrease, Professor Leslie says that these reforms will have great long term benefits and have increased competition among fast food companies to produce lower calorie food items.

Some groups in America have said that calorie posting would increase anxiety around food but Professor Leslie disagrees.

“I have heard people say ‘it is going to reduce my enjoyment of eating at restaurants’… I kind of feel like that’s a very minority opinion so from a consumer’s point of view I think it’s been very well met,” he says.

The NSW government is also proposing traffic light labelling of salt, sugar and fat levels to provide a clear indicator to consumers of the nutritional content of foods.

An example of calorie posting at Starbucks. Image: Lynn Silver

Jane Martin, Senior Policy Advisor at the Obesity Policy Coalition says that government action has been hesitant because the health benefits of this reform won’t be immediately obvious.

She argues that “there are a lot of people who benefit currently from advertising, promotion and sales of unhealthy food and they’re all protecting their turf… Politicians are interested in short term so the changes that need to be made we won’t see the benefits for some time and so it’s a hard sell politically.”

Professor Swinburn is also dubious of the plans and says that the Australian government has previously shown it is more interested in the treatment of chronic diseases than prevention.

“It hasn’t happened here because we haven’t had the political will to implement policies which have a real impact on reducing obesity,” he says.

The Review’s final report will be provided to the Australian and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council this December and COAG in early 2011.