Greens push for new Country of Origin Labelling scheme
Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne has foreshadowed a new Country of Origin Labelling (CoOL) Bill to be introduced into Federal Parliament by the Greens.
The proposed Accurate Country of Origin Labelling for Food (Competition and Consumer Act Amendment) Bill 2012 will be introduced with a view to changing the Food Standards Code and Part 5-3 of the Competition and Consumer Act to create “a new, clear food-specific” country of origin labelling framework. The labels will be based on ingoing weight of ingredients and components, as recommended by the Blewett Report into Food Labelling (2011).
The Blewett Report’s recommendations on Country of Origin Labelling were rejected by the government.
The new bill will specify the following standards for country of origin food labelling:
- ‘Made of Australian Ingredients’: at least 90% by weight (excluding water) of all ingredients or components of Australian origin (the current standard for the ‘Australian Made and Grown logo);
- ‘Grown in Australia’; for foods wholly grown in Australia.
- Removing of the use of ‘Made in’ as a stand-alone claim in reference to Australian foods.
- Prohibiting use of ‘Product of Australia’ for foods to avoid confusion as this standard is also applied to non-food items.
- Retaining existing mandatory labelling requirements for fresh meat and vegetables
- Providing clear stipulations for the use of logos associated with premium claims on the front of packages and plain English terms for on the back of food packaging, including minimum font sizes.
The Premium standards of 90% ‘Made of Australian Ingredients’ and ‘Grown in Australia’ would be derived from an agreed average to allow for fluctuations in supply so that the label would not be required to change if an Australian ingredient is unavailable despite the producer’s best efforts.
Current Australian ‘Country of Origin’ Label requirements
Under current laws ‘Made in Australia’ and ‘Australian Made’ can legally be used where the food in question has been transformed, and 50% or more of the transformation costs were incurred here.
The terms ‘Made in Australia’ and ‘Australian Made’ are not really about the origin of the food content, they are largely about the process it underwent to get produced and packaged.
A former survey by peak consumer group CHOICE reported previously by Australian Food News found that only half actually understood what the current terms ‘Australian Made’ and ‘Made in Australia’ mean, and 90% said that country of origin labelling needs to be clearer.
The Blewett Report
The Greens have said that they have considered the Blewett Report and accept its key recommendation of basing country of origin labelling standards on the dry weight of ingredients.
However, the Greens have said that they do not want to adopt the Report’s recommendation for a graduated scale of labelling based on percentage of Australian content as it simply replaces one complicated system that confounds consumers with another.
The Greens had a bill before the previous parliament which called for only those products 100% made in Australia to use the made in Australia claim. However, after feedback from the Senate inquiry that the 100% threshold was too onerous, the Greens are proposing a new “simple and clear premium claim.”
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Good to see the initiative by the Greens. In October 2009 in the Truth in Labelling Senate Inquiry AUSBUY was the only large representative organisation that asked for Country of Origin on labels. Others hopped onto it as they saw consumer demand for it. It then appeared to go into the bureaucratic abyss even in the Blewitt Report.
Made in Australia has disguised the real source of food as it inferred a product was sourced here and required only 51% of the wholesale cost of goods which are substantially transformed here. The use of local and imported or imported and local did not identify the real source of the foods . My understanding is that the Australian Made is a marketing organisation and not a legal labelling designation. It is used with the current labelling designations by many of the multinationals here and I have also found it on fully imported non food goods.
We need to ensure that the real Country of Origin is on our labels. Suppliers will say this is too expensive but they stamp use by and batch numbers on packs they can put the Country of Origin on immediately and not just the primary source. We also share our labelling laws with New Zealand – Made in New Zealand does not mean the food was sourced there. They have an FTA in agriculture with China and more food appears to be exported from New Zealand than is produced there. Australian consumers are denied the opportunity to support our own farmers. Consumers want to support our own but we are not making it easy for them.