Consumers need a degree in analysis and a pair of binoculars to understand and read food labels. It’s a rort and must stop.
The most popular new year’s resolution, every year, is to eat healthier. The second, in most years, is to work out more. The third targets our financial goals, and what we might do about them.
But if you have listed eating healthier in your plan you might want to do a touch more research. Food labelling in Australia, despite increasing regulation and a bigger media focus, remains opaque, contradictory and bamboozling.
Let’s take “lite” or “light” on packaging. For the uninitiated it might seem like it means it’s light on calories. And it might. But it could also mean it’s light in texture, colour or taste — and not necessarily calories. Eating cheese simply of a different colour might not help the Christmas largesse around your waistline.
