New food labels

THE Victorian Farmers Federation has welcomed the announcement by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, that the new country of origin food labelling standards have been gazetted.
The standard not only covers unpackaged fruit, vegetables and nuts but has been expanded to include unpacked fresh pork, ham and bacon and processed unpackaged seafood.
VFF president Simon Ramsay said:“We are very pleased that FSANZ have listened to the concerns of the VFF regarding the need for consumer confidence in labelling.
“Consumers will now be able to make an informed decision when purchasing fresh product.
“It’s important for growers competing against imported products that consumers wanting to support Australian farmers are now able to do so,” Mr Ramsay said.
Country of origin declarations, on unpackaged and packaged foods, will have to be consistent with trade practices legislation and trade practices law.
The VFF believes this will require importers to state the country of origin of the produce, not the last port the produce passed through. The standards will take affect in six months for unpackaged fruit and vegetables, 12 months for pork products and two years for packaged goods.