A. New Zealand actually has a Front of Pack Labelling (FOPL) system. According to my twitter feed I seem to be the only person who thinks the recent announcement* should be celebrated. As for the rest of you- all I… Read More ›
Food Industry 
Advice to the Government
Earlier this week I was asked to speak at the Heart Foundation’s Biannual Forum on three things the Government could do to stop heart disease. While there is a lot of great material in their call for action document Stop the Heartbreak… Read More ›
Lessons from the sacred cow
Some cows are so sacred that they can get away with almost anything. One of these is raw milk. As someone who’s consulted to various branches of the food industry for around 30 years, you could imagine my surprise to… Read More ›
Does commercial success by food companies equal public health failure?
Many public health advocates believe this about successful food companies: Food companies exist solely to make money, so they will sell whatever people will buy. Healthy food provides smaller margins, so they fill their food with cheap processed ingredients that… Read More ›
Let’s not get over excited about ‘made from local and imported ingredients’
Campbell Live built its recent story on locally made versus imported food products on the premise that New Zealand is “a huge food-producing nation”. It’s true that our dairy, meat and horticulture sectors are significant exporters, but when it comes… Read More ›
Who’s to blame? Time to try something different
We all know about the world’s obesity epidemic and the serious health consequences ahead of us. But we seem to be stuck in a blame game, rather than really committing to effective, collaborative solutions. Week after week books are published… Read More ›
Canned foods get a thumbs-up for sound nutrition and affordability
Image thanks to FreeDigitalPhotos.net The universal call to increase the consumption of fruits, vegetables, higher fibre foods and seafood, coupled with tightening family budgets, means that a study published recently in the Journal for Nutrition and Food Sciences is highly… Read More ›
Sugar – since when did the facts get in the way of a good story?
Last night’s Sunday programme on sugary soft drinks (TVNZ 10 June, 7pm) promised yet another “expose” of the type our current affairs love to hype up to get our eyeballs and ears on their screens at the right time. Previous… Read More ›
You still can’t beat f2f!
In this age of real-time electronic communication, it’s easy to be cynical about the time and expense involved in attending a good old-fashioned face-to-face meeting or conference. After all, just last week I took part in a tweet chat with… Read More ›
Do tales of expensive tomatoes really protect the public interest?
Media are required to walk a fine line between generating interest from their publics while ensuring they are not misrepresenting facts to do this.They also tend to target one aspect of an issue to illustrate a point with the effect… Read More ›