Defining “no added sugar” labelling

The Australian New Zealand Food Standards Code (ANZFSC) will be amended to incorporate the revised standard around food labelling in regard to “no added sugar” claims. This is an additional change to what was announced recently regarding food handling. We have summarised the changes to the code below. You can read the full approval report here and the supporting documentation here.

When a food:

Contains, or is, an ‘added sugar’ as defined in the Code, or

Does not contain ‘added sugar’ but contains more sugars (i.e. monosaccharides and disaccharides) than:

  • 10.0 g /100 g for solid food
  • 7.5 g /100 mL for liquid food.

The amended standard will:

  • provide information to consumers to enable them to make informed choices in line with Australian and New Zealand dietary guideline recommendations about added sugars in food
  • minimise the risk of consumers being misled about the overall healthiness of products naturally high in sugar
  • provide clarity and certainty for industry and government in the implementation and enforcement of the voluntary claims permitted to be made about added sugars in food, and
  • provide a transition period that allows alignment with other currently proposed labelling changes (i.e. P1058 – Nutrition labelling about added sugars).

The FSANZ hosted a public webinar on the proposed changes on 21 September calling for submissions. The public consultation closed on 8 December 2023 with all submissions considered by FSANZ in its assessment and by the Board. The draft was approved by the FSANZ Board on 14 November 2023 and published on 13 December 2023 following consideration by Australian and New Zealand Food Ministers.

The changes have been made to assist consumers in limiting their intake of food and drinks containing sugar and to make informed choices about sugar in their diet. Australian and New Zealand Food Ministers want to ensure voluntary added sugar claims align with dietary guidelines and requested the work be prioritised. This means information about added sugars are to be included nutrition information panel (NIP).

For more information about Food Standards please contact Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.