The senior government official overseeing the new health star ratings will no longer be in charge of the program.
Kathy Dennis, the assistant secretary in the Healthy Living and Food Policy branch of the Department of Health, said she would no longer be in charge of the scheme, according to a Fairfax Media report.
The move follows reports that Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash and her chief of staff, Alastair Furnival, insisted that a new website to provide information to food companies wishing to adopt the Health Star system be taken down just hours after it went live last week.
It then emerged that Furnival had a shareholding in his wife's company, Australian Public Affairs (APA), which lobbies for the soft-drink and confectionery companies such as Mondelez, and he'd also served as its chairman.
Last week, the AFGC told Food & Drink Business it supported a decision by Senator Nash to conduct a cost benefit analysis of the scheme.
“We support the Assistant Health Minister Senator Nash’s decision to implement a broader cost benefit analysis,” an AFGC spokesperson said.
“Once the cost benefit analysis has been completed, companies can have a proper assessment of the proposed scheme.”
