A suggestion that high calorie foods be required to use plain packaging like tobacco products has been rejected by food experts attending the Australian Institute of Food Science Technology (AIFST) convention in Brisbane.
The issue was discussed by a panel of food experts at the convention in light of recent suggestions that plain packaging of junk food could be a possible solution to the country’s obesity epidemic.
The idea found no backers at the convention, however. Instead the panel agreed that plain packaging was inappropriate and likely to be ineffective.
Panel members instead proposed a range of other methods to tackle obesity. The chair of the Federal Department of Industry, Innovation and Climate Change's Innovation Precinct, Peter Schutz, called for more variety in consumers' diets.
“We need to both develop and encourage people to eat a greater variety of foods. Eighty percent of the calories we consume come from just eight cereals, sugar and four tubers. We can do better,” he said.
Local authority on native Australian foods and winner of the 2013 AIFST Food industry Innovation Award, Vic Cherikoff, suggested food manufacturers should do more to increase the nutrient quality of common foods.
“Traditional hunter gatherer diets were driven by cravings and needs. We may be in an age of supermarket foraging but we still have biological needs for certain macro and micro-nutrients, including antioxidants,” he told the convention.
“When we are eating high calorie, low nutrient foods, there may be a risk that we are overeating in an attempt to meet our nutritional needs.
“We need to look at maximising nutrient content of foods – both processed and those at the farm gate – to meet our needs and reduce the risk of overeating."
Other experts spoke on the importance of better food education. “Despite the rise of the celebrity chef, we are seeing a de-skilling in cooking. It’s led to a general disconnect with food, poor knowledge of what’s in a dish and the amount we should be eating. We desperately need to improve food education,” said dietitian Professor Sandra Capra, of the University of Queensland.
The AIFST is the leading not-for-profit independent organisation for food professionals in Australia and is concerned with all aspects of food science and technology.
