New marketing guidelines for beverage bottlers

In response to the increasing community concerns about childhood obesity, the Australian beverage industry has released commitments to assist consumers in making informed decisions.

The document titled, "Commitment Addressing Obesity and other Health & Wellness Issues', spells out a series of major initiatives in additional consumer labelling and marketing to children.

Key proposals to be progressively achieved in the next two years include:

• Front-of-pack labelling " Introducing front-of-pack labelling clearly indicating the energy content of all soft drink containers marketed as single serves, such as the popular 375 mL can. In addition, the percentage that this represents of the average daily intake for an adult male will also be clearly displayed.
• Additional nutritional panel information " Simultaneously introduce additional percentage of daily intake information for all major nutrients in the nutrition information panel.
• School canteens " Voluntarily withdrawing sugar sweetened soft drinks from all primary schools and only provide high schools sugar sweetened soft drinks at their request.
• Marketing to children " Propose to not advertise (in all forms of media) any sugar sweetened products directly to primary school age children or in TV programs where primary school children are the majority of the audience.
• Increase low calorie product range " Introduce a wide range of new low- or no-calorie products as well as light versions of existing products.
• Encourage portion control " Encourage single size packaging and pursue the appropriate downsizing of products in order to avoid over-consumption.
• The control of promotions " Ensuring that competitions involving beverages does not encourage over consumption from its consumers.
• Active participation in healthy lifestyle and physical activity programs " Members of the Council will collaborate with relevant national authorities to take part in educational programs providing consumers with further nutritional information.
• Take part in independent research studies " The aim is to contribute or conduct public and private research on consumer behaviour in order to encourage a healthier lifestyle.

For further information, visit: www.australianbeverages.org.