Smoke and mirrors: nutrition content claims used to market unhealthy food

Nutrition content claims are statements that relate to the presence or absence of nutrients, energy or biologically active substances in food. Currently in Australia, food manufacturers are permitted to make nutrition content claims as long as they can substantiate that the food component is present at the claimed levels, that is, that the claim is honest and true. Nutrition content claims can be used by food manufacturers to market food products, whereby positive nutritional attributes are emphasised to exaggerate the nutritional quality or health benefit of the product. In this way, nutrition-related claims can be misleading, with manufacturers able to promote single nutritional attributes without disclosing the product’s less healthy characteristics.