The Tasmanian Greens today welcomed the news that new national food labelling will be introduced to make selecting healthy food much easier for customers, but said that the initiative still didn’t go far enough.
Greens Health spokesperson, Paul O’Halloran MP, said that the labelling was initially only being introduced as a voluntary measure and hope that the State Health Minister would not drop the ball on pursuing stronger state measures.
“The Greens support this measure as a move in the right direction, but see this more as an initial step rather than a broad reform. If health ministers were serious about peoples’ health they would move to make this labelling mandatory” Mr O’Halloran said.
“Data indicates that Tasmania is facing an epidemic of overweight and obese children, we are heading towards a generation that will put more strain on our health system than any generation that came before it.”
“The percentage of obese and overweight children between the ages of 5 and 17 in Tasmania has almost doubled in the past five years to almost one in three.”
“Tasmania now has the highest childhood overweight and obesity rate in the country, I hope the Minister does not consider this new labelling a panacea, as it’s not even a band-aid,” said Mr O’Halloran.
Paul O’Halloran MP Greens Health Spokesperson Friday, 14 June 2013
