The NSW Farmers Association has welcomed the federal government’s announcement that changes to labelling laws will be introduced to give better information about where a food item comes from.
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The mooted change comes in the wake of a hepatitis A outbreak last month, with a Dubbo woman identifying herself as one of the 21 cases of the disease in Australia that has been linked to imported frozen berries.
Federal industry minister Ian Macfarlane and agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce have been asked to prepare a submission on country-of-origin food-labelling laws for cabinet by the end of March.
The government is looking at a simple graphic that clearly indicates the percentage of Australian and imported content of packaged food.
NSW Farmers horticulture chairman and apple grower Peter Darley said the announcement was important for Australian families and farmers.
“Better labelling laws are needed so that shoppers are able to know that the food they buy their families comes from a source they can trust – Australian farmers,” Mr Darley said.
“Under the present system this is something that consumers cannot be sure of.
“Food packaging is all too often labelled with the uninformative ‘made from local and imported ingredients’ giving them no real guidance on where the food actually came from.”
Mr Darley, who is a producer from Orange, commended Mr Joyce’s commitment to ensure the government’s reforms would be based on the strong message from the Australian public for clear and simple labelling.
“In today’s society we are all time poor,” he said.
“The government needs to focus on ensuring that with a simple look someone can know that what they are buying has been grown in Australia.”
The association is also calling for rules that exclude food imported from New Zealand from Australia’s food standards to be reconsidered.
“Presently food that’s imported from New Zealand doesn’t need to meet Australia’s labelling laws nor any safety requirements that are placed on Australian produced food,” Mr Darley said.
“These exemptions not only cover food grown in New Zealand, but also food from other countries that is imported to Australia via New Zealand.”
As they made the announcement, Mr Macfarlane admitted customers may have to pay more as a result of the changes, but Mr Joyce expressed doubt that would be the case.
What was now already on the package could be simply replaced, he argued.
Woolworths, the country’s biggest food retailer, has said it is ready to work with the government to improve food-labelling laws, but Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman said the proposed changes were unclear and “probably mean more red tape”.
The association’s members include supermarkets, Bakers Delight Bakery and the Coffee Club.
While the source of the hepatitis A virus is still not confirmed, the only common exposure for all of the cases is the consumption of the frozen mixed berries.