Food laundering

The endless roundabouts of labelling laws and country of origin labelling make me cross. As I consumer I want to be able to determine what I am eating and where it is from. The horsemeat scandal in Europe and the UK has little to do with food safety (assuming the meat was not contaminated with not-for-human-consumption pharmaceuticals) but rather the fact that consumers did not know what they were buying.

In many parts of Europe, horse is considered a perfectly good meat and consumers would be happy to purchase horse lasagne. But in the UK, horse is not part of the diet and if consumers were aware they were buying horsemeat they would have said neigh.

In Australia, our labelling laws allow consumers to misconstrue the information on the pack, even though the information on the pack meets all of the legal requirements.

For example, take the vegetable industry. The major sources of produce imported into Australia are New Zealand and China - in that order. Most of us consider NZ to be quasi-Australia with very similar agricultural practices to our own and are quite happy to consume their vegetables.

But China is another story. Their agricultural practices and growing conditions are not always considered desirable by Australian consumers - especially when they are seen in context with the melamine scandal etc. Many consumers would prefer not to buy Chinese-sourced vegetables, as is their right.

But can they determine if the product they are purchasing includes Chinese-sourced vegetables? And sadly, the answer is not necessarily.

The very harmless wording on the package is either ‘Made in Australia from local and imported ingredients’ or ‘Made in New Zealand from local and imported ingredients’.  What is not clear in this message to consumers is that most of the vegetables came from China. They have been modified or processed in some way in Australia or New Zealand and after that the food processor can quite legally label the product ‘Made in ... from local and imported ingredients’.

This does not allow the consumer to make an informed choice about the item he is buying because he doesn’t get the information he wants. It is possible that the packet of mixed, frozen vegetables contains a pinch of local parsley and the rest vegetables sourced in China - but the labelling can still say ‘Made in Australia from local and imported ingredients’.

Back in the 1980s, orange juice adulteration was rife. The purportedly 100% juices were in some instances down to about 50% juice with the balance water, sugar, acid and flavour, and colour. These drinks were actually pretty good tasting and safe but the basic right of the consumer to know what they were buying was compromised. All that was wrong was there was no truth on the label.

The same applies to the current country of origin labels - surely it is possible to let consumers know what they are purchasing so they can, if they so desire, make informed choices. Hiding behind obfuscating wording and ‘sleight of hand’ practices does no one in the food industry any good - we just sully our reputation.