Dr Courtney Stewart

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Dr Courtney Stewart | Food Label & Claims Expert (RNutr, PhD)
Helping Australian food businesses launch & scale with compliant labels & health claims (no $$ reprints, launch delays!)
👇🏼 FREE Food label checklist

They had claims. They were on shelf. Most brands would have stopped there.This client kept watching the evidence, and wh...
16/10/2026

They had claims. They were on shelf. Most brands would have stopped there.

This client kept watching the evidence, and when new studies appeared on their product and gastrointestinal health, they came to me: is there more we can say?

We re-ran the systematic review and meta-analysis. Several new claim opportunities. All substantiated. Now on shelf at Coles and Woolworths.

The science moves. If you haven't revisited the evidence behind your claims, you might be sitting on opportunities you don't know exist.

Comment 'MISTAKE ', and I'll send you The Food Label Compliance Checklist 👇

Most founders will spend $5,000 on a rebrand without blinking.New logo. New colour palette. New packaging that finally l...
14/10/2026

Most founders will spend $5,000 on a rebrand without blinking.

New logo. New colour palette. New packaging that finally looks like it belongs next to the big brands.

Then they spend nothing on checking whether that packaging is legal.

Here's what that beautiful new label can be hiding:
- A health claim that hasn't been substantiated.
- An allergen declared in the wrong format.
- A nutrition information panel with errors.
- An ingredient that isn't permitted in food in Australia.
- A country of origin label in the wrong format.

None of these shows up in a design proof. They show up when a retailer's compliance team rejects your product, when a customer complains, or when a recall notice lands in your inbox.

At that point, the rebrand isn't an asset. It's a pallet of packaging you can't use, and you're paying for it twice: once to design it, and again to reprint it.

A great label gets you noticed. A compliant label keeps you on the shelf. You need both, and the order matters.

Check your label before you send it to print, not after.

Comment "MISTAKES", and I'll send you my free Food Label Compliance Checklist, covering the six most common labelling and claim mistakes behind recalls, ACCC cases and retailer rejections.

A tick on a Paddle Pop. A logo on Sakata chips. Both said "School Canteen Approved." Neither was true.Both were "Amber" ...
13/10/2026

A tick on a Paddle Pop. A logo on Sakata chips. Both said "School Canteen Approved." Neither was true.

Both were "Amber" rated. Both had small print. The ACCC didn't care; under Australian Consumer Law, the overall impression is what matters.

$10,800 each. Logos pulled.

Every visual on your pack represents something.

Does yours hold up? 👇

They pulled their website. Closed their socials. Halted production entirely.Not because something had gone wrong, but be...
09/10/2026

They pulled their website. Closed their socials. Halted production entirely.

Not because something had gone wrong, but because they were terrified something would.

The review found non-compliant ingredients and unsafe doses that nobody had caught.

We fixed it. And they launched with claims their product could genuinely stand behind.

The most expensive problems are the ones that make it to market first.

Comment 'MISTAKE' and I'll send you The Food Label Compliance Checklist 👇

The most expensive mistake in food isn't a recall. It's a reprint nobody saw coming.One missing allergen declaration. On...
07/10/2026

The most expensive mistake in food isn't a recall. It's a reprint nobody saw coming.

One missing allergen declaration. One claim that felt fine, until someone who knew the rules picked up the pack.

Your label is not a short-term print job. Get every required element confirmed before print.

Comment 'MISTAKE' and I'll send you The Food Label Compliance Checklist 👇

The spice aisle just had its TikTok moment.MasterFoods has launched a new range of toppers: Umami Garlic Herb, Spicy Chi...
05/10/2026

The spice aisle just had its TikTok moment.

MasterFoods has launched a new range of toppers: Umami Garlic Herb, Spicy Chilli Garlic, and Miso Flavour Garlic.

This isn't really a spice launch. It's a trend launch.

Chilli crisp, everything bagel seasoning, furikake: the "sprinkle it on everything" movement has been building for years, driven by social media and a generation of home cooks who want big flavour with zero effort. Eggs, avo toast, noodles, roast veg. One shake and it looks (and tastes) like something you'd order out.

By calling these "toppers", MasterFoods has moved from something you cook with to something you finish with. That's a clever shift. It puts the product on the table, not just in the pantry, and it gets used far more often.

For a heritage brand competing with newer, social-first challengers, it's a smart way to stay relevant.

From a nutrition perspective, there's a real upside. Flavour is one of the biggest barriers to eating more vegetables, eggs and wholegrains, and anything that makes those foods more enjoyable is a win. The watch-out? Sodium. Seasoning added on top of already seasoned meals adds up quickly, so it's worth checking the NIP.

Now look closely at the front of pack.

"Miso flavour." That one small word matters. Under the Food Standards Code, how you describe a characterising ingredient changes what you need to declare and what consumers can reasonably expect. "Flavour" can signal the taste comes from flavouring rather than the ingredient itself.

And "natural herbs & spices"? "Natural" isn't defined in the Code, which is exactly why the ACCC pays close attention to how it's used.

Big brands have regulatory teams checking every word. Most emerging brands don't, and it's these small details that lead to relabels, retailer questions and ACCC attention.

Would you try these? Which flavour are you reaching for first? 👇

And if you're about to launch a product of your own, comment "MISTAKES" and I'll send you my free Food Label Compliance Checklist.

They came to me convinced it couldn't be done.Every product in their category used ingredients that didn't reflect their...
02/10/2026

They came to me convinced it couldn't be done.

Every product in their category used ingredients that didn't reflect their values, and they assumed that was what compliance looked like.

It didn't.

We mapped the FSANZ requirements from scratch. No shortcuts. No compromise.

It's launching soon. And it looks nothing like anything else in the category.

If you've ever felt like compliance means settling, comment 'MISTAKE ', and I'll send you The Food Label Compliance Checklist. Know exactly where your product stands before it costs you. 👇

01/10/2026

A new Australian study scanned the QR codes on cereal packs to see where they actually lead - and what it found is a compliance blind spot most food brands don’t know they have.

QR codes feel like free marketing space, somewhere to say the things that wouldn’t fit on the label. But there’s an assumption brands are making about that space that simply isn’t true - and it’s the kind of thing that quietly turns into a misleading-conduct problem.

I break down what the study found hiding behind those codes, the false sense of freedom that catches brands out, and why the regulator doesn’t see your packaging and your website as two separate things 👆

Because the rules don’t stop at the edge of your pack - and assuming they do is exactly how a clever bit of marketing becomes a compliance headache.

💬 Comment or DM MISTAKES for my free checklist - so the claims on your label, and everywhere it quietly leads, actually hold up.

Buyers rarely tell you the real reason they said no."Not the right fit for our range.""A bit too niche for us right now....
30/09/2026

Buyers rarely tell you the real reason they said no.

"Not the right fit for our range."
"A bit too niche for us right now."

It's easy to take that at face value, polish the pitch and move on to the next buyer.

But sometimes the reason has nothing to do with your product or your price point. It's sitting on the back of your pack.

Undeclared allergens are one of the leading causes of food recalls in Australia, and buyers know it. When they review your label, they're not just asking "will this sell?" They're asking "could this come back to bite us?"

One missing allergen declaration means a product that could be pulled from shelf, customers put at risk, and a retailer's name attached to your recall. No buyer wants that conversation, so they give you a polite no instead.

The frustrating part? These mistakes are rarely careless. They creep in quietly.

A supplier changes an ingredient and the label never gets updated.
A compound ingredient hides an allergen a few layers down.
A label designed before the Plain English Allergen Labelling rules still uses the old format.
A "may contain" statement is doing a job it was never meant to do.

You can catch every one of them before you print and before you pitch.

If you've got a buyer meeting coming up, or you've heard "not the right fit" one too many times, it's worth checking whether your label is quietly working against you.

Comment "MISTAKES", and I'll send you my free Food Label Compliance Checklist, covering the six most common labelling mistakes behind recalls, ACCC cases and retailer rejections.

"Made in Australia from Australian Fruit Juice."Except it wasn't. One Berri product contained imported juice. Another co...
29/09/2026

"Made in Australia from Australian Fruit Juice."

Except it wasn't. One Berri product contained imported juice. Another contained no Australian juice at all.

The ACCC took them to the Federal Court.

This is one of the most misused claims in the food industry.

If your label references where your product or ingredients come from, make sure that claim stands up.

What's your biggest question about country-of-origin labelling? 👇

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