Australian Made Campaign gives evidence at inquiry into food labelling

The Australian Made Campaign has given evidence at the inquiry into country-of-origin labelling for food at the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Agriculture and Industry.

Both Ian Harrison, Australian Made chief executive, and Lisa Crowe, compliance and policy manager, made recommendations to the committee about how food labelling laws could be improved to build greater consumer confidence in the labelling of Australian products and produce.

“We again recommended that the regulations under Australian Consumer Law fall into line with the more stringent rules for using the Australian Made, Australian Grown logo, thereby eradicating some of the loopholes that currently exist,” said Harrison.

“Food products with high levels of imported content which undergo simple processing in Australia cannot use the green-and-gold Australian Made logo, and neither should they be able to claim that they were manufactured here under Australian Consumer Law.

“Consistent food labelling laws would provide consumers with greater certainty in the choices they make at the checkout and support growers and manufacturers of genuine Aussie products.”

Other recommendations included clarification of the concept of ‘substantial transformation’, specification of processes which, by themselves, do not satisfy this test, and the disallowance of qualified claims for products which do not satisfy this test.

“We are thrilled that this inquiry is being conducted within the House of Representatives structure - the seat of government - because there is great potential for positive changes to be made,” Harrison said.