Under the Influence: Regulating Influencers Giving Nutrition Advice

Influencers are ordinary people or celebrities who post regularly about their
daily lives on social media and have a significant number of followers. They
are normally provided with free products or services and are paid to post
and tag photographs of the services or products on social media. Studies
have found that some influencers provide advice concerning nutrition that
is incorrect or could harm people if followed. The Australian Food and
Beverages Advertising Code and the Australian Consumer Law are relevant
regulatory mechanisms that apply to this situation. However, there are some
serious gaps within this framework and it is not being sufficiently implemented.
The authors argue that there is currently insufficient protection to the public
from influencers providing misleading or deceptive nutrition advice and the
consequences are serious to the public’s health. This is the first article, to the
authors’ knowledge, to examine this issue in Australia.