GS1 Australia calls for global food safety

GS1 Australia CEO Maria Palazzolo has called on manufacturers to work with the not-for-profit standards body to develop extended packaging applications that will deliver a global food safety culture.

Addressing more than 600 food safety specialists and manufacturers at the Global Food Safety Conference 2011 in London, Palazzolo said: “The time to act is now. We need your support to make extended packaging a success. This issue not only concerns the protection of consumers; it is the protection of our children and families.”

GS1 Australia is working with industry, in collaboration with the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), to launch GS1 GoScan, the first industry-endorsed iPhone application that delivers detailed extended packaging product data to consumers, accurately and in real time.

Palazzolo said that the 2011 Review of Food Labelling Law & Policy in Australia Report identified an increasing demand for labels to contain more information.

“Demand is increasing for government to take a more strategic approach to food labelling policy. Label space is highly contested with competing pressures from consumers and food suppliers. The battle for label space has intensified,” she said.

“At the same time consumers crave true nutritional health information, especially as allergies have emerged as a major public health problem in developed countries during the 20th century. Australia and New Zealand have among the highest prevalence of allergic disorders in the developed world,” Palazzolo said.

A report by Access Economics released by the Australasian Society for Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) in 2007 revealed that, if current time trends continue, there will be a 70% increase in the number of Australians with allergies affected from 4.1 million now to 7.7 million by 2050, and an increased proportion affected from 19.6% to 26.1%. Access Economics estimated the financial cost of allergies in Australia to be $7.8 billion in 2007.

“We are all either a sufferer or know someone who is suffering or has died from eating something they didn’t know was in their food,” Palazzolo said.