Food packaging is set to get a makeover, with the front of packaging required to feature an icon showing the number of kilojoules in a product as well as information on saturated fat, sugars and sodium as part of a planned federal government campaign to tackle obesity.

The system will be trialled as a voluntary code, but a mandatory code has been included in a proposal put to state and territory ministers at the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council meeting last week.

The new star-rating system will be backed by a social media campaign run by the Australian National Preventive Health Agency and the new plan will include extensive market research to explore the effect of the new system on consumer behaviour.