NEARLY a third of all health claims on food sold in NSW supermarkets will have to be removed under laws to be introduced from Friday, research has found.

The laws mandate basic standards products must meet to promote the benefits of ingredients, preventing products making claims such as ''high in calcium for healthy bones'' when they are also high in things such as saturated fat, sugar and salt.

The food industry has been given three years before it will be forced to comply with the new standards. Credit:Louie Douvis

The food industry has been given three years before it will be forced to comply with the new standards.

Unhealthy foods that make only simple nutritional claims about the presence or absence of certain ingredients will not have to meet the health criteria; they will simply have to contain a certain level of that ingredient.