29 October 2009
Government food initiative will save lives says Heart Foundation
The Heart Foundation congratulates the Federal Government on taking much needed
action to improve the foods that Australians eat, with the announcement of the Food
and Health Dialogue.
Dr Lyn Roberts, Heart Foundation CEO – National, said the Dialogue will take action
to address rising obesity and chronic disease levels by reducing saturated fat,
kilojoules and salt in food, and by standardising serve sizes.
“The Heart Foundation knows that food innovation and reformulation works,” she said.
“Similar strategies in the UK, where the Government is working with the food
industry and retailers, have shown impressive results. In British adults, population
intakes of nutrients such as salt have fallen by approximately 10%. Most importantly,
this reduction has saved more than 6,000 lives a year so far.” ¹
Urgent action has to be taken in Australia to lower the amount of saturated fat in
food, particularly given that Australian adults and children regularly consume twice
the levels recommended by the Heart Foundation.
“Saturated fats raise cholesterol levels and are directly linked to cardiovascular
disease, Australia’s leading killer, which is responsible for 34% of all deaths,” said
Dr Roberts.
The Heart Foundation is enthusiastic to be part of the Dialogue and brings 20 years’
experience of challenging the food industry to make foods healthier. We have
shown that food companies can and will reformulate to meet our benchmarks.
For example, when just one breakfast cereal manufacturer used the
Heart Foundation Tick criteria to reduce salt in 12 cereals, it removed the equivalent
of 13 tip trucks of salt from Australian tables.
Working with a handful of fast food companies, a massive 460 tonnes of harmful trans
fat was also removed to meet the Heart Foundation’s standards.
“We look forward to working as part of the Dialogue and congratulate the Health
Minister, Nicola Roxon and her Parliamentary Secretary, Mark Butler for recognising
the potential of this initiative. There is an enormous amount of work to be done but
with strong government leadership we will be able to make big improvements to the
health of Australians,” said Dr Roberts.
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The Heart Foundation saves lives and improves health through funding world-class cardiovascular
research, guidelines for health professionals, informing the public and assisting people with
cardiovascular disease. As a charity, the Heart Foundation relies on donations and gifts in wills to
continue its lifesaving research, education and health promotion work. For further information go to
For further information or to arrange an interview contact:
Siobhan O’Neill, Public Relations Manager, Heart Foundation
T: (03) 92191536 / M: 0418 171 527 / E: siobhan.oneill@heartfoundation.org.au
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