The Australian Greens party has unveiled its formula for Country of Origin (CoO) labelling, with its proposed country-of-origin labelling bill banning food manufacturers from making the standalone claim of products being 'Made in Australia'.
The party's Accurate Country of Origin Labelling for Food Bill 2012 would amend the Food Standards Code and the Competition and Consumer Act to create a food-specific country of origin labelling framework.
“Most Australians expect that terms like ‘Made in Australia’ on food products mean that the food is from Australian growers,” the Green said.
“Under current laws ‘Made in Australia’ and ‘Australian Made’ can legally be used where the food in question has been transformed, and 50 per cent or more of the transformation costs were incurred here.
“In other words, the terms ‘Made in Australia’ and ‘Australian Made’ aren’t about the origin of the food content, they are largely about the process it underwent to get produced and packaged.”
The Greens bill follows the release of a survey of by consumer group Choice revealing a majority of Australians found existing CoO labelling confusing.
The survey found only 12 per cent of respondents were able to accurately identify the meaning of 'Made in Australia', only three per cent knew the correct definition of 'Made in Australia from local and imported ingredients, a mere quarter could identify the correct meaning of foods labelled 'Product of Australia' and a mere eight per cent understood the meaning of 'Australian grown'.
“Little wonder then that when Choice surveyed its members, only half actually understood what the current terms ‘Australian Made’ and ‘Made in Australia’ mean, and 90 per cent said that country of origin labelling needs to be clearer,” the Greens said.
Choice has welcomed the Greens efforts to address the confusion with country-of-origin labelling. It said, however, it was concerned that removing 'Made in Australia' labelling claims may leave many consumers without information they find important.
“Our May 2011 country-of-origin survey showed the majority of respondents found it important to be able to identify foods manufactured in Australia,” Choice said.
The Greens' bill will specify the following standards for country-of-origin food labelling:
- Foods labelled as ‘Made of Australian ingredients’ must be at least 90 per cent by weight (excluding water) of all ingredients or components of Australian origin.
- Foods labelled as ‘Grown in Australia’ must be wholly grown in Australia.
- Standalone claims about food being 'Made in Australia' would be banned.
- The ‘Product of Australia’ claim would be banned.
- Existing mandatory labelling requirements for fresh meat and vegetables would be retained.
- 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, would be set.
- Labels would be based on the weight of ingredients and components, as recommended by the Blewett Report into Food Labelling (2011).
