Melbourne Law School - Research Publications
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ItemOut of the Cage and into the Barn: Supermarket Power Food System Governance and the Regulation of Free Range Eggs(Griffith University Law School, 2014)The highly concentrated nature of food retailing in Australia gives supermarkets considerable control over the interface between consumers and producers. Legal and regulatory commentary debates what can and should be done about the market dimensions of supermarket power. This article shows that Australian supermarkets are amassing not only economic power but also political power in the food system. The article makes this argument by reference to two major supermarkets’ initiatives in the regulatory space around food labelling, specifically the contested meaning of free range eggs. The article examines how the supermarkets are using their market power to create private standards for suppliers of own brand products that set the meaning of ‘free range’ for consumers too. This entrenches supermarkets’ market share as well as their political power as food authorities.
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ItemFront-of-Pack Food Labeling and the Politics of Nutritional Nudges(Wiley, 2016)This paper examines the potential for new front-of-pack nutrition labelling initiatives to “nudge” consumers towards healthier food choices. The libertarian-paternalist approach to policy known as nudge initially developed by Thaler and Sunstein is discussed, with its emphasis on designing spaces (including the space of the food label) to shape the behaviour of individuals while not restricting consumer choice or imposing restrictions or penalties on producers. In the context of concerns over diet-related chronic diseases and obesity, new front-of-pack interpretive nutrition labels have been proposed or implemented in an attempt to shift consumer dietary choices, including the multiple traffic light labelling system (MTL) in the U.K. and the Health Star Rating (HSR) system in Australia. We identify some of the characteristics, the underlying nutritional philosophies and the limitations of these front-of-pack labelling schemes. We suggest that the potential of these schemes is compromised by the co-existence on the food label of many other forms of nutrition information and food marketing. Some alternative ways of labelling and communicating the nutritional quality of foods are also discussed.