Food standards and nutrition for heart health
Our policy priorities for a healthier Australia
The Heart Foundation advocates for better public health and nutrition, guided by these principles:
- Evidence-based action – Policies and programs must be grounded in the latest research on dietary patterns, nutrients, and effective strategies to reduce health inequities.
- Clear food labelling – Mandatory, transparent labelling on packaged foods, alcoholic beverages, and kilojoule content for foods sold outside the home.
- Healthier food environments – Stronger policies to support healthy choices, including food reformulation, portion control, and responsible pricing, promotion, and marketing.
- Equitable access to nutrition – Reliable, affordable access to nutritious food in all communities, including remote areas, to reduce diet-related disease risks.
- Accountability and monitoring – Transparent governance, regular National Nutrition Surveys, and robust reporting on Australians’ dietary intake and nutrition status.
Explore our food and nutrition advocacy
Health Star Rating system and Nutrition Label Information
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is progressing work on nutrition labelling to better support consumers to make informed healthy food choices. The Heart Foundation welcomes the opportunity to share evidence and information with FSANZ to help inform their work on front and back-of-pack nutrition labelling, including the Health Star Rating (HSR) system and the nutrition information panel (NIP).
Read the Heart Foundation's response to FSANZ's call for information.
Improving commercial foods for infants and toddlers
The Heart Foundation welcomes the Food Regulation Standing Committee's initiative to improve commercial foods for infants and young children. We support policy options that would impose greater regulations on the composition and labelling of commercial infant and toddler foods in Australia.
Read the Heart Foundation's submission to the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care's public consultation on improving commercial foods for infants and toddlers.
Limiting unhealthy food marketing to children
Exposure to marketing for unhealthy foods and drinks can significantly influence food intake, choices and preferences. Children are especially at risk of being influenced because they are at an important stage in life where they develop habits that often last into adulthood.
Read the Heart Foundation’s submission to the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care’s feasibility study on options to limit unhealthy food marketing to children.
Economic Cost of High Cholesterol in Australia
The economic burden attributable to high cholesterol is $3.9 billion.
Read the full report:
Energy labelling on alcoholic beverages
Heart Foundation provided a submission to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) proposal P1059 regarding energy labelling on alcoholic beverages.
Summary of the recommendations within our submission:
- FSANZ prohibits manufacturers to determine a ‘normal’ serving size of alcoholic beverages.
- FSANZ prescribe reference amounts to act as the basis for determining serving sizes. Self-served alcoholic beverages are to align with government messaging on serving sizes of standard drinks. For individual bottles or cans, which are intended to be consumed as a single serve, serving size is based on the entire contents.
- Mandatory energy labelling on alcoholic beverages be applied to online retail settings, including meal delivery services which are expanding to the provision of alcoholic beverages.
- Mandatory energy labelling be applied to both individual and outer layer packaging.
- Energy-related nutrient content claims on alcoholic beverages be included in P1049 which presently is limited to carbohydrate and sugar claims.
- Cost-benefit analysis is extended from overweight and obesity measures to include alcohol-related harms.
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Nutrition and living with heart disease
Information on healthy eating, with a focus on key highlights for people who have heart diseases. This includes people who have had a heart attack, along with heart disease risk factors (high cholesterol, high blood pressure).
Nutrition position statements
The Heart Foundation’s food and nutrition position statements have been developed to keep you informed about our position on a range of nutrition issues relating to heart health.
Nutrition Evidence Summaries and Reviews
Our evidence summaries and reviews contain the current knowledge used to develop the Heart Foundation’s position statements and recommendations on food and nutrition.