A review of the Australia's food labelling laws early this year failed to recommend a mandatory traffic light system for unhealthy food, pointing out that the system should only be implemented on a voluntary basis.

Today, a new mobile phone application has been launched in Melbourne which has the capacity to track fat and sugar content according to ABC News. This new Traffic Light Food Tracker, according to Obesity Policy Coalition, will allow the shoppers to bypass the food industry's reluctance to support the move for traffic light labelling.

According to the policy brief of Obesity Policy Coalition, a front of pack traffic light labelling scheme would use multiple traffic lights on the front of food packs to indicate levels (low - green, medium - orange, high - red) of individual nutrients such as fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt.

In essence, traffic light labelling would alarm consumers on their choices by putting red warnings on food with high fat, sugar and salt content and green labels on healthy food options. The system has been shown to cause improvement on people's eating habits according to Obesity Policy Coalition spokeswoman Jane Martin.

"We believe if traffic lights were mandatory on all packaged foods it would guide and empower consumers to make healthier choices for themselves and their families - that's certainly what the evidence shows," she said.

"It has been used in a voluntary capacity in the UK. For a category like ready meals with the traffic lights, sales of the healthy ready meals went up and sales of the unhealthy ready meals went down.

"Our research shows consumers want to know how much salt, sugar, saturated fat and total fat, is in the products they buy.

"Traffic light labels provide this information at a glance, and help shoppers sort the fat from the fiction."

Front-of-pack food labelling that covers all food products should be mandatory according to Melanie McGrice from the Dietitians Association of Australia. She further opines that legislation, as well as the Traffic Light Food Tracker, needs to show both the nutritional and unhealthy content of each food item.

"From what I've heard there may be a few issues with the app. You're never going to find anything that's perfect but I think what's important is we find something that's evidence-based," she said.

"As for which is the way to go, I think we still need a bit more research into the best option."

Kate Carnell, Australian Food and Grocery Council spokeswoman, also mentioned earlier this year that the proposed traffic light labelling is an overkill and was concerned by the cost of the plan to the manufacturers.

"Already in Australia we have a front-of-pack labelling system on over 4,000 products that consumers are taking to very well, so it seems totally unnecessary," she said.

The Federal Government is due to respond to the recommendations for compulsory traffic light labelling later this year.