Consultation on policy guidance for menu labelling in Australia and New Zealand

About the consultation

We want to develop policy guidance and a policy framework for consistent menu labelling across jurisdictions.

We are seeking your thoughts on 4 options:

• Maintain the status quo.
• Encourage all jurisdictions to implement consistent menu labelling schemes in their own legislation.
• Develop a policy guideline to inform a proposed bi-national food regulatory measure in the Food Standards Code.
• Encourage industry to voluntarily implement enhancements to menu labelling.

For more detail, view the consultation regulation impact statement below.

This consultation is open to everyone.

Key documents

Why we are consulting

In August 2019, the food ministers agreed that the most effective way to achieve consistent menu labelling would be to develop a food regulatory measure under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.

We (the Food Regulation Standing Committee) are leading this work.

The first step is to develop a policy guideline to provide strategic guidance to Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). Your input will help us to do this.

The creation of a policy guideline does not trigger regulatory action by FSANZ or changes to current food labelling. However, when FSANZ develops or reviews food regulatory measures, it must consider policy guidelines.

Related consultations

The Food Regulation Standing Committee (FRSC) consulted Australian stakeholders in:

• early 2018 about fast food menu labelling schemes
• late 2018 about possible solutions.

Outcomes

We will provide the outcomes of this consultation to food ministers.

Related information

This consultation:

• is part of the activity to develop consistent menu board labelling
• supports the priority to reduce chronic disease related to overweight and obesity.

Contact

For any queries, please contact the Food Regulation Secretariat.