Food Labelling Laws to be Overhauled

The Competition and Consumer Amendment (Australian Country of Origin Food Labelling) Bill 2013 introduced into Parliament last weeks will revolutionise designation and regulation of country of origin labelling for food in Australia.

It is widely recognised that Australia's current country of origin labelling standards for food are inadequate, with labels frequently containing information that confuses and misleads consumers. Independent consumer advocacy organisation CHOICE and the independent review of food labelling law and policy report, chaired by Dr Neal Blewett, Labelling Logic (2011) have called for urgent review of Australia’s current confusing food labelling system.

Two key parts:

The first key part of the new Bill is the enactment of Recommendation 41 of the Blewett Review which recommends creating a specific section in the Competition and Consumer Act which deals exclusively with food country or origin claims. The new section features a single regulatory regime for most kinds of unpackaged and packaged food, retaining mandatory labelling requirements, but replacing the country of origin labelling requirements currently in the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Act 1995.

The second part enacts recommendations arising from the Senate Inquiry into Senator Milne's Private Member's Bill, the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Australian Food Labelling) Bill 2012. These amendments extend country of origin food labelling to all packaged and unpackaged food for retail sale; and clarify and restrict the variety of labelling (and the definition of key terms) to three types of assertions. These changes streamline the system and deliver improved transparency for consumers.

For example, new rules about the definition and wording of claims for food manufactured in Australia include a requirement to use the term "Manufactured in Australia" rather than "Made in Australia". This reflects consumer research showing consumers find the words "Made in Australia" confusing because it is unclear whether it is the contents of the product or the manufacture that was “made” in Australia. "Manufactured" is a more clearly understood term that removes this confusion.

The Bill also eliminates the opportunity to make qualified claims such as "Made from local and imported ingredients" that have been shown to be particularly misleading and uninformative to consumers, replacing them with the claim of "Packaged in Australia", which reflects the situation where food has had minimal processing in Australia.

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