Health advocates are lobbying federal, state and territory leaders for clearer sugar labels on food products following the release of Choice's latest report.
Australians are consuming an average of 60 grams of added sugar a day, which equates to 14 teaspoons. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders consume even more, at 18 teaspoons, while some teenagers are consuming 38 teaspoons daily.
"Australians are over-consuming added sugar, especially children and teenagers,” Katinka Day, from Choice, said.
Among the most surprising findings, the consumer watchdog found savoury processed foods as well products pertaining to be healthy were the worst offenders.
“Added sugar is hidden in everyday products. So it's not the products that you just think of as unhealthy: it's (in) breakfast cereals, it’s yoghurts, it’s savoury foods," Ms Day said.
Items to watch out for
Choice called out several culprits in its report, including Kellogg's Nutri-Grain cereal, where one 40 gram serving contains nearly three teaspoons of hidden sugar.
Swapping Nutri-Grain for Uncle Toby’s Weeties saves a consumer from having any unnecessary sugar.
Other items mentioned include Healthy Choice Apricot Chicken, Woolworths Select Chow Mein, Gippsland Raspberry and Coconut Yoghurt, and Golden Day Apricot Bites.
Jane Martin, from the Obesity Policy Coalition, explains that checking the label is not always enough.
"One of the problems for a consumer is they don't know how much added sugar is in their food compared to the naturally occurring sugar because that's not on the label,” she told SBS News.
“There's 43 different names for sugar that are used on the ingredient list and that makes it very confusing to know what proportion of your food is actually sugar."
Calls for transparency
Dr Stephen Duckett, from the Grattan Health Institute, said the report shows that added sugar is "disguised and not upfront".
"It's all very well to say you have to moderate your food intake but if they think that something doesn't have much sugar in it and it turns out it has more, that's really bad," Dr Duckett told SBS News.
“So what consumers should be calling for is much more awareness.”
With the changes, consumers could avoid 38 kilograms of unnecessary sugar a year, Ms Day said, but first, labels need to be more transparent.
"So we're asking for the government to catch up with the rest of the world, and label added sugars clearly on food products,” she said.
“We need labels that allow consumers to make informed choices."
State, territory and federal food ministers will consider that recommendation when they meet on Friday at the Forum of Food Regulation.
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