Lessons learned from providing a free nutrition labelling tool for industry—the Australian experience

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) establishes a common set of food standards for use in two countries—Australia and New Zealand. These standards require, among other provisions, that almost all packaged foods carry a nutrition information panel containing information on the levels of energy, protein, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugars and sodium in 100 g and in a serving of the food. In 2001, FSANZ developed a free, web-based nutrition labelling tool to assist manufacturers to meet these nutrition labelling requirements. A customized database, containing nutrient information on consumer-ready foods, food additives and specialized food ingredients, was developed based on Australian national food composition tables. Detailed explanatory notes were prepared. After 18 months of operation, we have identified a number of areas where unforeseen issues have arisen: the difficulty of including reliable, representative data for specialized food ingredients; inadequate information technology infrastructure among users; lack of user knowledge about nutrients and foods; weak literacy and mathematical skills among some users; heavy demand for assistance from FSANZ staff; and the need to consider aspects of legal liability. The lessons learned by FSANZ in providing this labelling tool are relevant for other national food composition programs.