Australia, New Zealand Examine Health Claims, Labeling (Health Claims Down Under)

From an industry perspective, health claims and nutritional labeling enable effective and direct communication to the consumer of the innate benefits of dietary supplements and functional foods and beverages. Australia’s share of the global functional food market was an estimated $1 billion AUD ($952 million USD) in 2003 and is growing at a rate of 8 to 14 percent annually. This represents about 1.5 percent of the country’s total market sales in the food and beverage category.

In response to the growing number of foods and beverages carrying health claims around the globe, most major regulatory agencies have developed their own laws regulating labeling (Figure 1). One such regulatory agency, Foods Standards Australia New Zealand (FANZ) helps enforce the 1991 Act and the foods standards code (Standard 1.1A.2). However, the agency has further proposed specific legislation, “Nutrition, Health and Related Claims Standard (Proposal P293).”¹ In light of pending changes to the laws governing both Australia and New Zealand’s health claim system, it is critical to evaluate issues related to substantiation of health claims and the framework surrounding such applications.

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