Food Standards Australia New Zealand today gazetted the new country of origin food labelling standard for Australia, making it officially law.
“Australian consumers have indicated that they wish to know the country of origin of their products,” said the parliamentary secretary to the minister for health and ageing, Christopher Pyne. “The new standard means that they will be able to go into a supermarket, or their local shop, and be able to clearly see which country any packaged food or unpackaged fruit, vegetable, nut, seafood and fresh pork, ham and bacon product comes from.”
The standard will come into full force for unpackaged fruit, vegetables, nuts and seafood products in six months’time, for unpackaged pork products in 12 months and for packaged goods in two years’time.
“Enforcement of all food standards, including country of origin labelling is a state and territory responsibility. I am pleased to note that the Implementation Sub-Committee is developing a national enforcement strategy for country of origin labelling to be implemented by the states and territories,” Pyne said.
