Xinhua, Melbourne :
Allowing Australian businesses to classify acai berries as “superfoods” highlights a weakness in Australia’s food marketing laws, a leading legal expert has said on Friday.
Professor Christine Parker from the University of Melbourne said up to one third of all acai berry products on Australian supermarket shelves carry unproven health claims – ranging from anti-ageing properties to their effect on serious conditions such as cancer and heart disease – due to a loophole in the nation’s food marketing laws.
She said local food health claim laws need to be updated to keep up with the “superfood” trend, as there is currently no formal definition for it in Australian law and is therefore open to use by any food manufacturer who wants to use it.
“With obesity and diabetes on the rise, consumers are increasingly anxious to make healthy food choices,” Parker said in a statement on Friday.
“Consumers are at risk of making expensive or unnecessary choices because our regulations fail to cover many health claims, and are inadequately enforced.”
She added that food marketers are getting smarter, and are using legal loopholes to entice customers into buying their products, and that lawmakers must understand that, while it seems harmless to market something such as the acai berry as a “superfood,” other companies may get ideas about marketing foods with more “dangerous” effects.
“Many food marketers are perhaps taking too literally the adage that food is medicine, and direct online marketing of some of these products is making it easier for false health claims to be accepted widely and uncritically, with sometimes dangerous consequences,” Parker said.
Allowing Australian businesses to classify acai berries as “superfoods” highlights a weakness in Australia’s food marketing laws, a leading legal expert has said on Friday.
Professor Christine Parker from the University of Melbourne said up to one third of all acai berry products on Australian supermarket shelves carry unproven health claims – ranging from anti-ageing properties to their effect on serious conditions such as cancer and heart disease – due to a loophole in the nation’s food marketing laws.
She said local food health claim laws need to be updated to keep up with the “superfood” trend, as there is currently no formal definition for it in Australian law and is therefore open to use by any food manufacturer who wants to use it.
“With obesity and diabetes on the rise, consumers are increasingly anxious to make healthy food choices,” Parker said in a statement on Friday.
“Consumers are at risk of making expensive or unnecessary choices because our regulations fail to cover many health claims, and are inadequately enforced.”
She added that food marketers are getting smarter, and are using legal loopholes to entice customers into buying their products, and that lawmakers must understand that, while it seems harmless to market something such as the acai berry as a “superfood,” other companies may get ideas about marketing foods with more “dangerous” effects.
“Many food marketers are perhaps taking too literally the adage that food is medicine, and direct online marketing of some of these products is making it easier for false health claims to be accepted widely and uncritically, with sometimes dangerous consequences,” Parker said.
