WA wants better food labelling

A Curtin University study shows there is widespread support for government regulation of food labels and advertising in Western Australia.

The study reveals 94 per cent of people think the government should control health ratings on food and 83 percent believe it should regulate the advertising of junk food.

Researcher Dr Christina Pollard says many people currently find food labels confusing.

"When you go to buy food products it's quite difficult to choose between foods and I think there's a lot of information on food products that sounds like it might be healthy but it's a bit hard to tell between products whether they're comparable," she said.

"People are really after accurate, consistent and reliable information."

Dr Pollard said the majority of respondents said they would also like to see regulation of the supply of environmentally friendly food.

She said it appeared public opinion had evolved ahead of government policy.

"Thinking about the advances we've had in trying to help protect people from tobacco, smoking, and the health effects of that, often public opinion is actually a little bit ahead of government action, so it was surprising for us to see just how much support there was."

Source: ABC News, 10 October 2013