Fast food chains to provide kilojoule count
by Leon Gettler
New controls are coming into Victoria telling people exactly how many kilojoules they’ll be consuming.
Under laws announced this week, Victorian fast food outlets will have to list the energy content of their menu items.
The new rules apply to the big fast food chains. Any with at least 20 venues in Victoria, or 50 venues nationwide will have to comply.
The law will now require them to display the average adult daily intake of 8700 kilojoules at the point of sale.
And supermarkets will also be required by law to label unpackaged and ready-to-eat items.
Victorian health minister Jill Hennessy said it was all about creating public awareness.
"Many people are unaware that a single fast-food meal may contain most of an adult's daily kilojoule intake," Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy said.
"With rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes increasing at an alarming rate and placing a huge burden on our health system, this is an important step forward in tackling this issue and improving the health of Victorians."
Victoria is not the first state to introduce such laws. Similar rules are already in place in New South Wales. South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. Queensland has indicated they will be going down this direction too.
"This is not a silver bullet in terms of the very confronting challenges we have [to] battle disease, but it is important that Victoria gets with the program," she said.
In a sense, all the Victorian government is bringing the state’s food laws into line with the rest of Australia.
The changes follow a study released by the Cancer Council and Heart Foundation Victoria which found that only two major fast food retailers in Victoria out of nine tested were displaying nutritional information in line with the NSW requirements.
According to the report, this was leading to obesity and chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, kidney disease and some cancers.
8th April 2016
