Food for Health Alliance

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Food for Health Alliance

Australia's leading policy & advocacy voice working to improve diets & prevent overweight & obesity.

Food for Health Alliance (formerly known as the Obesity Policy Coalition) is a leading policy and advocacy voice working to improve diets and prevent overweight and obesity in Australia, particularly for children. We advocate to governments for laws and policies to improve our food environment – the way our food is made, labelled, sold and advertised. By changing our food environment, we can help

to create a world that supports health and wellbeing, making it easier for all Australians to live well. Our key priority areas are protecting children from unhealthy food marketing, improving food labelling, improving foods for babies and toddlers, and influencing changes to how foods are priced and taxed. We also focus on the frameworks that influence these key issues, including national strategies, international guidance, and the regulation of the food system. Our work is informed by current evidence, and we work with researchers, health professionals and other policy experts to build, inform and communicate the evidence on diets, obesity prevention, trends, and impacts. Our partners are Cancer Council Victoria, VicHealth and the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition at Deakin University.

21/08/2026

Sugary drink companies pack drinks full of sugar, sell them everywhere, discount prices heavily and market relentlessly – driving high consumption that harms Australians’ health.

Our new audit, released today, has found that that popular drinks sold in Australian supermarkets contain as much as 2.5 times the daily limit of sugar recommended for good health, in a single serve.

With some of these drinks having as much as 16 teaspoons of sugar in serve, it's no wonder that sugary drinks continue to be the leading source of added sugar in Australians’ diet.

We know companies won’t stop making and pushing these high sugar products on Australian families on their own. Strong government action is needed to make companies reduce the amount of sugar in these drinks.

This is what our community wants - 77% of Australians surveyed support of government intervention to cut sugar from drinks.

Read our media release to find out more: https://www.foodforhealthalliance.org.au/media-news/media-release/2026/77-of-australians-want-government-intervention-as-common-drinks-found-to-have-more-than-d.html

20/08/2026

Head to the Obesity Evidence Hub to find out more about the political and environmental factors that impact on overweight and obesity.

04/08/2026

Australia's food regulatory system is failing us - putting industry interests ahead of public health and protecting Australian consumers.

Food for Health Alliance assessed Australian governments’ action on food labelling reforms recommended in the 2011 Labelling Logic report, an expert review of Australia's food labelling law and policy.

Only 3 of the 40 recommendations in Labelling Logic aimed at improving health been fully implemented, leaving Australian families without the information and protections they need.

This isn't just isolated to food labelling. The failure to implement these recommendations comes down to broader problems in the food regulation system.

We have an opportunity to fix our broken system. Australia is about to undertake the first major review of the legislation underpinning the food system in more than 30 years – the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Act 1991 (FSANZ Act).

Governments must use this opportunity to strengthen the system's capacity to protect Australians' health, and to do this public health outcomes must be the priority, not just industry profits.

18/06/2026

Did you know that a single 375ml can of classic Coca-Cola contains a whopping 10 teaspoons of sugar?! That’s more than double the daily maximum of 6 teaspoons that the World Health Organisation recommends for good health.

29/05/2026

Looking for evidence on obesity trends, impacts, prevention, environmental influences & treatment in Australia? Check out the Obesity Evidence Hub: www.obesityevidencehub.org.au

20/05/2026

New research has shown that placing sugar warning labels on sugary drinks would significantly change adolescents’ behaviour - leading many to avoid buying or drinking them altogether.

Sugary drinks are the biggest source of added sugar in Australian’s diets, so reducing sugary drinks consumption is a clear place for governments to focus if they want to support Australian’s health.

Yet currently Australia is falling behind the dozens of countries who have adopted front-of-pack sugar labels on their products. And with our national regulator deciding just this year to shelve work on mandating added sugar labelling in Australia, we risk getting left further behind, at the expense of our community’s health.

It’s imperative that work to inform consumers about added sugar labelling stays on the agenda.

Read our media release to find out more: https://www.foodforhealthalliance.org.au/media-news/media-release/2026/new-research-shows-added-sugar-labels-would-prompt-teens-to-dump-sugary-drinks.html

15/05/2026

On budget night the Australian Government released its response to the to the Federal Parliamentary Inquiry into Diabetes.

Disappointingly, their response failed to action the strong, evidence-based policies to prevent type 2 diabetes, that were recommended in the report, including:

- A levy on sugary drinks to encourage manufacturers to reduce sugar in their drinks
- Regulating unhealthy food marketing to protect children on TV, online and gaming
- Improved food labelling targeting added sugar

The government has ‘noted’ these recommendations, but has not accepted them, despite them having significant support from public health experts and the Australian community.

This was a missed opportunity from government to prevent chronic diseases linked to poor diet and obesity – covering not just type 2 diabetes but heart disease, cancer, stroke and dementia.

With millions of Australians suffering from serious health issues caused by unhealthy food environments government leadership is urgently needed to help make it easier for Australians to eat nutritious diets.

The Food for Health Alliance urges government to take strong action to prevent chronic disease and protect Australians health now and into the future.

Read out media release to find out more: https://www.foodforhealthalliance.org.au/media-news/media-release/2026/government-neglect-of-diabetes-prevention-policies-a-blow-to-australian-s-health.html

08/05/2026

The Food for Health Alliance welcomes the government’s release today of the final report of the feasibility study on policy options to implement restrictions to protect children from unhealthy food marketing.

The independent expert report found that a wide range of policy options were feasible, including restrictions on unhealthy food marketing on TV and online, as well as in retail environments, outdoor advertising, unhealthy food sponsorships and product packaging.

Unhealthy food marketing has a powerful influence on children, shaping what they eat, what they ask for, and how they spend their pocket money.

With big profits to be made from pushing unhealthy products to kids, this isn’t an issue that will go away on its own. As the report highlights, self-regulation doesn't effectively reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing. It's the responsibility of government to step in with strong controls to protect our children’s health.

With the report confirming that strong action is feasible, we urge governments to take a comprehensive approach to tackling the powerful influence that unhealthy food marketing has on children’s diets and health.

Read our media release to find out more: https://bit.ly/4nhEDt7

23/04/2026

Have you visited the Obesity Evidence Hub? It's a great resource for finding key evidence on obesity trends, impacts, prevention, environmental factors and treatment in Australia.

Find out more: https://www.obesityevidencehub.org.au/

08/04/2026

Using beloved children's characters like Bluey or Paw Patrol is another sneaky tactic used by the food industry to make unhealthy products more appealing to our children.

And it's effective. Research has shown that including cartoon characters on product packaging influences young children's preferences, making them want these products more.

While this marketing boosts corporate profits, it undermines our children's nutrition and their future health.

We need government to set higher standards to stop the processed food industry from using these marketing tactics.

Check out our website to find out more - link in comments.

Address

Level 8, 200 Victoria Parade
Melbourne, VIC
3002

Website

https://foodforhealthalliance.org.au/

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