The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) have refuted findings by consumer watchdog Choice into ‘dodgy diet’ claims made on food products.
Choice recently completed a review of popular diet foods and found that many may actually be higher in kilojoules than regular products.
Choice compared a wide range of products with diet claims, including oven baked chips, ice creams, cottage cheese, breakfast cereals and rice cakes, and found that many of these foods held a premium price yet contained more kilojoules than conventional products.
“With Australian consumers spending $827 million on weight-loss products last year, diet foods can be hard on your hips and your hip pocket,” said Tom Godfrey, head of media at Choice.
“Food companies attract would-be dieters with terms such as ‘guilt-free’, ‘lean’, ‘balanced’, ‘healthy’, ‘less’ and ‘stay in shape,’ but unfortunately this marketing jargon is meaningless if you are trying to count kilojoules.”
Deputy CEO of the AFGC, Dr Geoffrey Annison has dismissed Choice’s claims by stating that all nutritional attributes are listed on the back of these foods, allowing consumers to make informed decisions.
“I think that Choice is essentially missing the point. It’s important that food companies are able to attract consumers to foods that are specially formulated to help them construct healthy diets,” Annison told Food magazine.
“The full information about the nutritional attributes of those products is on the packs, displayed on the nutritional information panels.”
Supermarket shelves have been bombarded with brands aimed at the health conscious consumer such as the new Coles Simply Less brand along with more established players such as McCain Healthy Choice and Weight Watchers.
Choice emphasised that these products are far from ‘guilt-free’ as they have a tendency to be highly processed with minimal nutritional value.
“The first thing you notice when you look at diet products is that many tend to be highly processed, salty, sugary treat foods with little nutritional value. From jams and biscuits to salad dressings, they’re foods you’d assume a dieter should avoid, even with reduced kilojoules,” said Godfrey.
“With 80 percent of weight-loss products purchased by women, they should be aware that ‘simply less’ could well mean more kilojoules, so it’s vital that if you want to watch your weight you need to read the nutritional panel on pack.”
Examples of products compared
- Birds Eye Hot Chips Straight cost $3.99 at 514kj/ 100g while McCain Healthy Choice Straightcut Fries costs $4.29 at 519kj/ 100g
- Dairy Farmer Low Fat Cottage Cheese costs $2.89 with 389kj/100g while Weight Watchers Cottage Cheese costs $3.50 at 381kj/100g
The AFGC believes that it is up to consumers to make an educated decision by reading the nutrition informational panel on products prior to purchase.
“Ultimately, the whole issue of labelling is for consumers to look at the whole pack, to look at the nutritional information panel, particularly if they are not familiar with the product, and make an assessment about whether it meets their dietary needs or not,” said Annison.
“Products are marketed on the totality of their attributes, not just on single attributes.”