Healthy Food Partnership

The Australian Government and stakeholders representing the food industry and public health met on 26 August to progress the work of the Healthy Food Partnership.

The partnership comprises representatives from the Australian Food and Grocery Council, AUSVEG, Coles, Dairy Australia, Dietitians Association of Australia, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, Meat and Livestock Australia, Metcash, National Heart Foundation of Australia, Public Health Association of Australia, the Quick Service Restaurant Forum and Woolworths. It is chaired by the Assistant Minister for Rural Health, Dr David Gillespie.

At the meeting, members agreed that the key priority of the partnership would be to improve the nutritional health of all Australians by:

• aiming to improve the nutrition of all Australians by making healthier food choices easier and more accessible and by raising awareness of better food choices and portion sizes;
• providing consistent national cross-sector leadership — involving the government, the public health sector and the food industry — in an effort to tackle diet-related chronic disease, encourage healthy eating and empower the food supply chain to make positive changes.

Policies, programs and initiatives will aim to:

• promote healthy diets throughout the life course, from the early stages of life to adulthood;
• align with the Australian Dietary Guidelines;
• build upon and align with existing initiatives for greater national consistency, particularly through public communications;
• work towards relevant national and international targets, with a particular focus on targets that have been agreed by the Australian Government;
• foster community enjoyment of healthy food and normalise healthy eating.

The partnership commended the food industry for its efforts to voluntarily improve the nutritional quality of processed packaged foods. The report on the evaluation of the nine food categories for which reformulation targets were set under the Food and Health Dialogue is now available on the partnership’s website. 

Significant reformulation progress has been made by the Australian food industry across 2009–2015, including average sodium reductions of 32% in ready-to-eat breakfast cereals and over 80% of target breads, ham, other cured meats and ready-to-eat breakfast cereals meeting the agreed sodium targets in 2015.

The partnership’s Reformulation Working Group will establish a broad work plan which will build on these achievements and other existing tools, such as the Health Star Rating system, and will look to optimise the nutritional profile of the food supply.