Nutrition and health claims standard becomes law

Standard 1.2.7 - Nutrition, Health and Related Claims has become law, effective from 18 January 2013. The Standard regulates nutrition content claims and health claims on food labels and in advertisements.

Under the new Standard, food businesses wanting to make a general level health claim will be able to base their claims on one of more than 200 pre-approved food-health relationships in the Standard.

Alternatively, businesses can self-substantiate a food-health relationship. Businesses must notify FSANZ (Food Standards Australia New Zealand) of the relationship prior to making the claim on food labels or in advertisements for food.

FSANZ will maintain a list of the notified food-health relationships that businesses have chosen to self-substantiate. Businesses are not able to use a relationship on the list that has been provided by another food business.

Foods carrying health claims must meet certain compositional requirements set out in Standard 1.2.7, including the nutrient profiling scoring criterion (NPSC). Foods that are high in saturate fat, sugar or salt, for example, will not be permitted to display health claims. An online calculator is available to help food businesses determine a food’s nutrient profiling score.

Food businesses will have three years to meet the requirements of the new Standard.

More information on the new Standard and health claim types is available on the FSANZ website: www.foodstandards.gov.au.