Your Chance to Improve Food Labelling
- February 26, 2010
- Josette Dunn
If you have opinions or ideas about how to improve food labelling in Australia, now is the time to do something about it. The Committee conducting the Independent Review of Food Labelling Law and Policy is about to embark on the planned second round of public consultations in Australia and New Zealand.
This Review, chaired by Dr Neal Blewett AC, is being conducted at the request of the Council of Australian Governments and the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council, representing Australian and New Zealand Governments.
This public consultation period is an important opportunity for people to provide the Review Committee with specific information about ways to improve food labelling in Australia and New Zealand.
The Committee have prepared a paper (called the Food Labelling Review Issues Consultation Paper) that summarises the issues that have been raised in the first round of submissions to the Review, as well as issues in the literature and media in recent years. This Paper elaborates on the Review’s Terms of Reference and has been prepared to stimulate thinking and debate. It is important to now take the next step in the Review process and begin thinking about the range of solutions and ideas to improve food labelling.
The Food Labelling Review Issues Consultation Paper will be released on 5 March 2010 via the website www.foodlabellingreview.gov.au. The closing date for written submissions is 14 May 2010. Submissions that add to the deliberation and discussion (and meet the submission guidelines) will be made publicly available on the website.
As part of the consultation, the Review Committee will be holding public forums in Australia and New Zealand from 17 March - 7 May 2010. Members of the public are encouraged to take the opportunity to respond to the consultation questions, and to attend one of the public meetings. Stakeholders are now invited to register on the website (www.foodlabellingreview.gov.au) to attend a public forum.
The schedule is as follows:
Perth
Wednesday 17th March 2010
Wellington
Thursday 25th March 2010
Christchurch
Friday 26th March 2010
Sydney
Monday 29th March 2010
Hobart
Friday 9th April 2010
Canberra
Monday 12th April 2010
Darwin
Friday 16th April 2010
Adelaide
Friday 23rd April 2010
Melbourne
Thursday 29th April 2010
Brisbane
Friday 7th May 2010
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Reader Comments
Australian Food News reserves the right to edit or not publish comments of a potentially offensive or defamatory nature. Comments will not be published if name and email address has not been provided (name and email will be withheld if requested).
The opinions expressed below are those of Australian Food News readers and do not necessarily reflect those of Australian Food News.
3 Responses to “Your Chance to Improve Food Labelling”
I think that labelling food is a good idea because of the fact that many Australians do not want Genetically Modified ingredienats in their food
And they have a right to know what is in their food because of the high risk of cancer etc.
The terms “Australian Made” and “Australian Owned” do not reveal the actual level of Australian inputs and are almost, Un-Australian in their usage requirements. To remedy this problem a new “Australian Authenticity Logo” has been unveiled. Visit http://www.ozcompliance.com.au to see what is behind the labels and logos such as Australian Made.
Oz Compliance makes a qualified statement as to the Australian level of inputs for Content, Ownership, Manufacture and its Packed Status. At last an Australian Authenticity logo that is Truth in labelling.
Consumers have the right to know where their Food and Goods come from. Without Oz Compliance they cannot make an informed choice, regardless if it is a health choice, a cost choice, a patriotic choice or one of principle.
OzCOMPliance provides a reasonable basis upon which to compare any two items. It provides a means of comparison that gives a truthful impression which in itself, makes it unlike any other Country of Origin label (COOL) or similar “Trust Mark” that we are all familiar with.
By looking for the OzCOMPliance Logo, you can see for yourself just how much of any item is actually Australian by the stated percentage scores for Content, Owned, Made and Packed.
Truth, however disenchanting is better than falsehood, however comforting. -Schweitzer
Could you please consider this as a way to possibly alter food labels to make them more transparent in relation to the country of origin for the contents.
If companies can’t be accountable about the products contents origins. ie oats in an aust box, with chinese oats that because of a loop hole the product comes into Aust via New Zealand. let’s make a change.
In the ingredients panel that is already there by law, the ingredients (or the bulk of the ingredients) maybe 85% of the product should be included in that panel.
example
ingredient energy fat country of origin
sugar - - AUS
herbs imported
this I think could be a good standard that wouldn’t be a substantial change for the companies that say it takes too much space.
It would also be regulated by the percentage of the items within the ingredients list.
and easy to identify with country codes.
As it is you can’t tell by the bar code or the ‘information’ that is given as ‘fact’ which is only at this point marketing language and avoidance.
thank you
leigh camilleri