Sydney Health Law

Category: Food

  • Regulating harmful cross-border advertising: can it be done?

    Regulating harmful cross-border advertising: can it be done?

    How do governments prevent their citizens from being exposed to harmful online advertising which originates outside of their jurisdiction? Such advertising is referred to as cross-border advertising. Advertisers have taken advantage of a digitised, interconnected world to reach broad audiences (including children) across national borders.

  • Indigenous Peoples’ Inclusion in Food Governance

    Indigenous Peoples’ Inclusion in Food Governance

    For NAIDOC Week, Dr Mark Lock speaks to Dr Belinda Reeve about championing health equity and inclusion for First Nations Australians in food governance.

  • Strengthening law’s role in improving Australia’s diet

    Alexandra Jones and Belinda Reeve This post originally appeared in MJA Insight and is re-posted with the MJA’s kind permission. The original article can be found at this link. THE law can be a powerful tool for improving population health, but remains underutilised in addressing Australia’s huge burden of diet-related disease. Taken in a broad…

  • Upcoming event: the 2019 Food Governance Conference

    Sydney Health Law is hosting the second Food Governance Conference from the 3rd to the 5th of July this year. The Conference is a collaboration between Sydney Law School, the University’s Charles Perkins Centre and The George Institute for Global Health. The 2019 Conference will explore how law, policy, and regulation address (or contribute to)…

  • Upcoming events: Protecting children from unhealthy food marketing – learning from the past, ideas for the future

    Along with Cancer Council NSW and the Charles Perkins Centre’s Food Governance Node, Sydney Health Law is hosting an event on regulation of unhealthy food marketing to children. Protecting children from unhealthy food marketing remains a hot topic, given increasing concern about children’s diet-related health. In Australia, food marketing to children is regulated largely through…

  • Cracking the Codex: the new frontier for nutrition labelling

    Previous Alexandra Jones, Global health lawyer and PhD Candidate at The George Institute for Global Health and the University of Sydney Dr Anne Marie Thow, Senior Lecturer in Health Policy at the University of Sydney Dr Carmen Huckel Schneider, Senior Lecturer, Health Policy at the University of Sydney and co-lead of the Health Governance and Financing Group and…

  • Santa, Coke and Christmas: Why we need legislative restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to children

    Laws in many countries prohibit false and misleading advertising. The recent case of ACCC v Heinz (which I discussed in a blog post last week) shows how these laws can knock out false and misleading food advertisements. But what about the perfectly legal promotions for unhealthy foods and beverages that fill our TV screens, social…

  • ACCC v Heinz: A significant win for public health

    In a significant victory for public health, Australia’s Federal Court has held that Heinz engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in the marketing of a snack food targeted to toddlers (ACCC v Heinz [2018] FCA 360). The case should be seen as a win for public health not just because of the final outcome, but…

  • Upcoming events: The Food Governance Showcase

    On Friday the 3rd of November, Sydney Health Law is co-hosting the Food Governance Showcase at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre. The Showcase will present new research from University of Sydney researchers and affiliates, examining the role of law, regulation and policy in creating a healthy, equitable, and sustainable food system. The Showcase…

  • Upcoming events: Engaging with Advocates

    On Friday the 28th of July, Sydney Health Law is hosting Engaging with Advocates, along with the Food Governance Node and the Healthy Food Systems Node at the Charles Perkins Centre. This event aims to connect early career researchers with leading civil society advocates in order to foster collaboration and increase the impact of research. Representatives…

  • Promoting health goals in a self-regulating industry

    Earlier this year I published an article on self-regulation of food marketing to children in Australia. I focused on two voluntary codes developed by the Australian food industry to respond to concerns about children’s exposure to junk food advertising, and how it might affect their eating habits. My article pointed out the many loopholes in…

  • Self-regulation of junk food advertising to kids doesn’t work. Here’s why.

    Recently, Cancer Council NSW published a study finding that food industry self-regulation in Australia has not been effective in reducing children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing. Australian children still see, on average, three advertisements for unhealthy foods and beverages during each hour of prime time television they watch. This figure remains unchanged despite the Australian…

  • Sydney Health Law’s Food Governance Conference

      In the first week of November, Sydney Health Law will be hosting the Food Governance Conference. The conference is a collaborative endeavor between Sydney Law School and the Charles Perkins Centre, the University of Sydney’s dedicated institute for easing the global burden of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The conference also has sponsorship from…

  • Upcoming Conferences: Governing Food

    Governing Food: The Role of Law, Regulation and Policy in Meeting 21st Century Challenges to the Food Supply Dates: Tuesday 1st November – Thursday 3rd November 2016 Venue: Sydney Law School Sydney Health Law is hosting the Governing Food Conference in November this year, in conjunction with the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre and with sponsorship…

  • Could a sugary drinks tax improve Australian diets?

    The UK tax on soft drink and Jamie Oliver’s call to action  Today Britain announced that from 2017 it would levy a tax on soft drinks containing more than five grams of sugar per 100 millilitres, as part of efforts to contain rising levels of childhood obesity. The announcement prompted Jamie Oliver to post a video…

  • Is your summer barbeque under fire? Chewing over the evidence on meat and cancer, and digesting the implications for regulation

    The report We’ve now had a few weeks to chew over the latest report linking food and cancer. Only this time it wasn’t a puff-piece in your Sunday newspaper, but an extremely comprehensive report from IARC, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. After a systematic review, IARC’s findings on the links…

  • Consider yourself warned: Public health coming to a fast food menu near you

    New York City’s Board of Health last week unanimously agreed to require ‘salt-shaker’ warning symbols on menu items with more than an entire day’s recommended limit of 2300mg of sodium. That’s around one teaspoon of salt. Restaurants with more than 15 outlets nationally will display warnings from 1 December 2015. Industry groups and the National…

  • Local government action: a new pathway for obesity prevention in Australia

    Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Stephen Simpson (Director of the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney) and Rosemary Calder (health policy Director at the Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy at Victoria University), call for community-based action to prevent chronic disease. They point to communities like Broken Hill, which has high…