Food labelling, and when the doctor becomes the patient..

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Health Report 28 min 2 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 3 days ago

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What is the Health Report and why does a doctor become a patient in this episode?

Dr. Norman Swan 0:00

Hello and welcome to this week's health report with me, Norman Swann. We all assume that when a doctor becomes sick, he or she gets special attention. Today a personal story which shows how wrong cancer specialists can be in their judgment about patients in general. And now if this can happen to a doctor, what about the rest of us? And the continuing battle to get the food industry to make labelling understandable and have a simple system that we consumers can recognize when we want to see how healthy a food is before we throw it into the supermarket trolley. This is a story that our newest recruit, the ABC's health team, has been writing about this week, Olivia Willis, our very own online health reporter.

Dr. Norman Swan 0:41

Welcome, Olivia, and welcome to the job.

Olivia Willis 0:43

Thanks, Naomi.

Dr. Norman Swan 0:44

What is this Health Star rating that we're going to be talking about?

Olivia Willis 0:47

Okay, so the Health Star rating is basically the labelling that we see on the front of food products in the supermarket. It's

Dr. Norman Swan 0:53

voluntary rather than compulsory.

Olivia Willis 0:54

It is. So they're not on all products and it's essentially designed to give you a kind of at a glance overall rating in terms of health of that particular food.

Dr. Norman Swan 1:02

And how do they come about the rating and who makes who does the rating system?

Olivia Willis 1:06

It's essentially a nutritional composition. So each kind of product starts with like a baseline level and then they kind of gain points for what they call kind of the good nutrients, healthy nutrients, things like fibre and protein, and they lose points for risk nutrients.

Dr. Norman Swan 1:19

Like fat and sugar.

Olivia Willis 1:20

Exactly. Fat, sugar, salt.

Dr. Norman Swan 1:22

Now the assumption is that the rating is about what's in the packet.

Olivia Willis 1:26

That's right.

Dr. Norman Swan 1:27

Or the tin.

Olivia Willis 1:27

That's right.

Dr. Norman Swan 1:28

But it's not.

Olivia Willis 1:29

Well, it's designed to be, but there is a loophole with that and and that's kind of why it's been in the news this week. So there's a rule called the as prepared rule, which basically means that the rating can be based on how the manufacturer uh I guess wants you to consume the product or how it's designed to be consumed. So the case that we've been seeing is Milo. Milo has a four and a half out of five star rating.

Dr. Norman Swan 1:52

Pretty good. Keeps all Milo fans happy.

Olivia Willis 1:54

Exactly. It keeps Milo fans happy. I'm not sure it's quite accurate. Milo's about fifty percent sugar. The reason that it does have the rating is because Nestle, the products company, says that it's designed to be eaten, you know, three teaspoons with 200 mils of skim milk, which is not how most people I know eat Milo.

Dr. Norman Swan 2:11

This week with thin milk. Exactly. So what are the proposals then for change? Because this is under review. I mean, should we say that the Food and Grocery Council is the bad guy in this and they have been all along. They don't want any sort of rating system at all. They like the stuff at the back of the packet you don't understand. They resisted the traffic light system that the UK's got, which is pretty straightforward. And now, I mean the allegation I think from Allie Jones at the George Institute is that they're putting delaying tactics Even to the Hellstar rating.

Olivia Willis 2:40

That's right. She's saying that the government should be pressing ahead with changing this rule. Like there's a number of loopholes within the broader health star rating system, but they experts at kind of the George Institute think, well, this is one that we can actually do quite a quick fix. This is a really simple loophole to take out. And and it doesn't actually affect that many products, but for the ones that it does, they're kind of making the case that by having just a handful of products that are like that, it undermines confidence in the whole system.

How does the Health Star Rating system work and why is it controversial?

Dr. Norman Swan 3:06

But we are talking about processed food here. It could be quite a few.

Olivia Willis 3:08

That's right. It does affect a few, but I would say probably one of the more concerning aspects is that there's no separation between added sugars and natural sugars. So the the rating doesn't distinguish between those two.

Dr. Norman Swan 3:19

So there can be throwing in table sugar uh and it could be say fruit in there which has got sugar in it, and there's no differentiation.

Olivia Willis 3:25

That's right. Or products that are really high in added sugar are getting away by manufacturers kind of reconfiguring, you know, the ingredients that are in something so they add in something like fibre, so they boost their rating, but then, you know, dairy products which have naturally occurring lactose, they get a low rating.