New research shows growth of daily intake labels
Australians making New Year’s resolutions to lose weight by improving their diets should follow daily intake labels which have been expanded to thousands of products, according to new research by the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC).
The latest industry research found Daily Intake Guide (DIG) front-of-pack labelling – first introduced in Australia in 2007 – is currently on more than 2000 food and beverage products and is used by about 180 leading brands.
AFGC Chief Executive Kate Carnell said the result was a vast improvement from 2007 when DIG was used by major brands on only 58 products.
“Over the past three years, there has been a 3000 per cent increase in the use of DIG thumbnails on supermarket foods,” she noted. “These labels outline the amount of energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt in a standard portion of the food and how that translates to average daily intake.”
Ms Carnell added that, in symmetry with the major brands, DIG was being progressively added to house brand labels by major supermarket chains including Woolworths, Coles and IGA.
“AFGC and its retail partners will soon be rolling out user-friendly consumer education material in retail stores to ensure consumers know how to use the nutritional information to put together a balance diet,” she advised.
