Kilojoule menu labelling in fast food outlets

History of kilojoule menu labelling in Australia

Requiring fast food chains to declare the kilojoule content of standard products on menus was a recommendation of the 2011 Labelling Logic Review of Food Labelling Law and Policy, commissioned by the Australian, state and territory and New Zealand governments.¹

To facilitate consistency across Australia, in 2011 the Food Regulation Standing Committee provided technical advice for jurisdictions opting to introduce menu labelling legislation.² Menu labelling schemes have now been introduced in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.² There is no mandatory menu labelling in Tasmania, Western Australia or the Northern Territory. Assessments by smaller jurisdictions including Tasmania and the Northern Territory determined that legislation would capture few additional businesses, because national chains had largely chosen to implement menu labelling across all their Australian outlets as a result of legislation in other states.²

In 2018, the Food Regulation Standing Committee reviewed the effectiveness of menu labelling schemes in Australian jurisdictions, through consultation with food industry, public health, consumer and government stakeholders.³ The Committee’s review focused on areas of inconsistency in legislation between jurisdictions, how menu labelling can be applied to changing trends in the fast food industry and whether additional and interpretive information could aid consumer understanding.⁴ The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation (the Forum, now known as the Food Ministers’ Meeting) and the Council of Australian Governments considered the consultation findings. In their August 2019 meeting, the Forum agreed that nationally consistent menu labelling is most desirable for industry, public health organisations and governments, and that the most effective way for this to occur would be to develop a food regulatory measure under the Australia and New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code).⁴

A broader consultation on policy guidance for menu labelling was run in 2021,⁵ resulting in a Ministerial Policy Guideline being developed and approved by Food Ministers in November 2022.⁶ Food Ministers also requested the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand to raise a proposal to develop a food regulatory measure for menu labelling in the Code, however this has not happened to date.

Potential impacts of kilojoule menu labelling

A 2017 systematic review,⁷ covering a wide range of international studies, indicates that the degree to which kilojoule menu labelling encourages healthier purchases is unclear.

However, an evaluation of the introduction of kilojoule menu labelling legislation in New South Wales (NSW) showed that menu labelling improved consumers’ understanding of average daily energy intake and led to a significant reduction in the median number of kilojoules purchased.⁸ There is also evidence that the effects of menu labelling strengthen over time with repeated consumer exposure.⁹²

While menu labelling has the potential to encourage retailers to reformulate to lower the amount of energy in menu items,¹⁰ a NSW study found no significant or systematic decreases in the energy content of menu items at five fast food chains since its introduction in that state in 2012.¹¹

Improvements to kilojoule menu labelling

Through the recent review of menu labelling in Australia, the Food Regulation Standing Committee identified a number of areas for improvement.¹² These include inconsistent application of menu labelling legislation across the country (for example, differences in how and when to display energy information, and differences in businesses exempt from menu labelling), an uneven playing field for businesses, and gaps in legislation resulting from emerging trends for promoting and selling food (for example, digital panel menus, third-party food delivery platforms, and customised menu items). These areas were addressed in the resulting Ministerial Policy Guideline, which outlines that that future food regulatory measures on menu labelling should capture all modes of sale and types of menus, and all businesses that sell standard food items.

The Food Regulation Standing Committee also recommended that a mandatory food regulatory measure for menu labelling be developed in the Food Standards Code. This has not yet happened to date.

The areas that were identified for improvement by the Food Regulation Standing Committee and incorporated into the Ministerial Guideline reflect some of the suggestions from many public health groups in their submissions to reviews, which included:

• Removing exemptions for particular businesses such as supermarkets, convenience stores and cinemas¹³
• Closing gaps in coverage, for example by lowering the threshold for compliance to chain restaurants with 10 outlets within a state and 50 outlets nationally; and extending labelling requirements to airlines and vending machines¹⁴
• Keeping up with technology and trends including a requirement for kilojoule information to be displayed with the name and price of the item at point of purchase across all platforms, including digital ‘rolling’ menus in stores, online menus¹⁵ and through third-party delivery providers¹³ such as Menulog and UberEats.¹⁴ An analysis of foods sold on online food delivery services in Australia in 2022 found that a high proportion have missing or incomplete kilojoule labelling information. Only 35% of large food outlets had complete kilojoule labelling on their company apps for each item on their menus, while an even lower proportion (5% and below) of large outlets on online food delivery platforms (including Menulog, Uber Eats and Deliveroo) had complete kilojoule labelling at all store locations.¹⁶
• Legibility requirements so that kilojoule information is displayed in the same font, size and colour as the name and price of the item¹³
• Education to increase consumer understanding of kilojoules in the context of the recommended daily energy intake¹⁵

In addition to kilojoule labelling, some public health groups and researchers recommend extending kilojoule labelling requirements to incorporate broader elements of nutrition. Potential options to explore include use of the Health Star Rating in this context¹⁷ or adopting traffic light systems.¹⁸

Content for this page was reviewed and updated by Jasmine Chan at Deakin University, and reviewed by Gary Sacks, Co-Director at the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition at Deakin University. For more information about the approach to content on the site please see About | Obesity Evidence Hub.