KEY POINTS:
The Government is being urged to compel food and drink companies to introduce a "traffic light" system indicating how healthy items are if they will not do it voluntarily.
Parliament's health select committee yesterday issued the results of its year-long inquiry into obesity and type 2 diabetes.
It warned that the problems had the potential to "rapidly overwhelm the health system".
The committee concluded that education alone would not be enough to tackle obesity and said existing initiatives were "fragmented and poorly co-ordinated".
An increased effort to control obesity and type 2 diabetes was urgently needed, the committee said.
"In general, there is too much emphasis on education and promotion of physical activity as the key preventive interventions."
Led by Green MP and food standards campaigner Sue Kedgley, the committee has recommended the food industry use a "traffic light" or similar system of signs on packaging to highlight whether foods are healthy, unhealthy, or somewhere in between.
Coloured spots on packets would indicate the fat, salt and sugar contents of foods and drinks in a system already used in the United Kingdom.
If the food industry did not adopt the labelling voluntarily, the committee said, regulations should be introduced to make it happen.
Health Minister Pete Hodgson's office would not comment on the proposal last night, but Labour MPs on the select committee did not oppose it, suggesting it has some Government support.
The National Party has voiced a dissenting view in the report.
And the food industry says it is too simple a solution to a complicated problem.
Concern about obesity in New Zealand has been rising as it becomes more prevalent. A 2002-03 health survey suggested as many as 35 per cent of adult New Zealanders - about 500,000 people - were obese.
The simplicity of the traffic lights system helps shoppers choose healthier foods, but it has drawbacks - as an example, cheese can contain high fat and salt levels, but it is also high in calcium and protein.
The committee recommended the labelling system be introduced gradually, starting with children's food.
The report also calls for a ban on broadcast advertising of unhealthy foods before 8.30pm.
And it recommends extending the fruit-in-schools programme, and school lessons in nutrition, food preparation and cooking.
Robert Bree, a former Food Industry Group executive director and now an industry commentator, said the recommendations were not a surprise, but would have limited success.
"What food labelling tries to do is to say that this particular item of food is more healthy or less healthy than other items of food," Mr Bree said.
But that depended on the requirements of the individual.
