Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott has proposed a Weight Watchers-style food labelling system in his biggest move yet to tackle obesity.
The labels would enable consumers to quickly identify a food's calorie content and the percentage of average daily food requirements it offers.
Mr Abbott said it would be "an unmistakable sign to consumers of what they are doing to themselves when they consume these particular foods".
The proposal came as a National Heart Foundation Survey of 1450 adults revealed more than half of the respondents were overweight or obese, but that only 35 per cent believed they had a weight problem.
Robyn Charland, chief executive of the foundation in Victoria, said some people were genuinely unaware, but some were probably in denial.
The survey follows a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia that showed only 5 per cent of mothers of overweight children were concerned about their child's weight.
At an obesity conference in Brisbane yesterday, Mr Abbott said the proposed food labels wouldn't be "as gory as the graphic health warnings that are now on cigarette packets". But he said people needed to know just how much of their daily requirements they were consuming when they chose food such as a meat pie or an ice-cream.
Victorian Health Minister Bronwyn Pike welcomed the proposal. "Something that makes information more accessible is something we'd be keen to have a look at," a spokesman said. The food industry had agreed to detail the nutritional content of food, but it needed to be more streamlined and easier to read, the spokesman said.
Nutritionist Rosemary Stanton said: Mr Abbott's proposal was "stronger than he's been before (on obesity) . . . At least Tony Abbott is now recognising that something has to be done to combat obesity."
Ms Stanton said there were two possibilities for labels that consumers could quickly understand. The first would be similar to a Weight Watchers points system, in which foods are given a number of points based on their calorie and saturated fat content. The other possibility was the "traffic light" system, under which foods are coloured red, yellow or green based on how healthy they are.
Mr Abbott reiterated the Government's opposition to a ban on junk food ads during children's television. He said there was a big difference between banning ads for something illegal for underage children, such as cigarettes, and something that wasn't.
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