Standard 1.2.7 - Nutrition, health and related claims in the Food Standards Code (the Code) set out requirements for making nutrition content and health claims about food.
Find out more about the Standard and the different types of claims.
The Implementation Subcommittee for Food Regulation (ISFR) has guidance on how to comply with Standard 1.2.7. For more information read Getting Your Claims Right - a guide to complying with the Nutrition, Health and Related Claims Standard.
Health claims
You can only base health claims on food-health relationships that have been substantiated according to Standard 1.2.7. All health claims must be supported by scientific evidence to the same degree of certainty, whether they are pre-approved by us or self-substantiated by food businesses.
General level health claims
Food businesses wanting to make a general level health claim can base a claim on one of the more than 200 pre-approved food-health relationships in the Standard or self-substantiate a food-health relationship by following the process for systematic review in Schedule 6 of the Code.
Self-substantiating a food-health relationship
Food businesses self-substantiating a food-health relationship must notify us of the relationship before making a claim on food labels or in advertisements. We maintain a list of the notified food-health relationships. This is a public record of food businesses that have chosen to self-substantiate a food-health relationship to underpin a general level health claim.
We don't consider the merits of notified food-health relationships but manage the notification process. When we publish a notified relationship, it doesn't indicate acceptance or validation of the stated relationship.
Food businesses are not able to use a relationship in the list that has been notified by another food business. Food businesses wishing to make a claim based on a relationship that's already on the list must:
- meet the systematic review requirements in Schedule 6
- notify us of the relationship.
Further reading:
- notifying a self-substantiated food-health relationship
- establishing food-health relationships for general level health claims.
High level health claims
High level health claims must be based on pre-approved food-health relationships . There are currently 13 pre-approved food-health relationships for high level health claims in Schedule 4 of the Food Standards Code.
Read about the reviews of existing high level health claims already in the Code.
Pre-approval of health claims
Food businesses can also apply for pre-approval of a food-health relationship supporting a general or high level health claim. Read more about the application process for changing the Code.
Other requirements for foods displaying health claims
Foods displaying health claims must meet certain compositional requirements set out in the Standard, including the nutrient profiling scoring criterion (NPSC). The Nutrient Profiling Scoring Calculator helps food businesses determine a food's nutrient profiling score. Food businesses must meet other conditions in the Standard before they can make a health claim.