Imported foods have 99% compliance with Aust standards

New figures from the Department of Agriculture (DAFF) show that most imported foods comply with Australia’s strict food standards. According to a new report from DAFF, the results of tests applied to imported food show a consistently high rate of compliance.

Colin Hunter, DAFF’s First Assistant Secretary of Border Compliance, says the report shows that the rigorous testing applied to imported foods works.

“We have a thorough process which checks that food products imported to Australia meet our strict import conditions, are correctly labelled and are safe for consumers,” Hunter said.

“We work with Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) as well as state and territory authorities to ensure imported food meets our domestic standards and is safe for us to eat.

“We focus our efforts on the food products which pose the greatest human health risk by analysing what it is, where it comes from and who is importing it. We then apply the tests recommended by FSANZ to these risk foods.”

Food labelling accounted for most cases of non-compliance in imported foods, the report shows.

“Between 1 January and 30 June 2013, over 45,000 tests were applied to imported food including label assessments, analytical, chemical and other tests,” Hunter said.

“And when you remove food labelling from the equation, the overall compliance rate was 99.2%. This report, released twice a year, details the types of food tested, how frequently they’re tested, the level of compliance and the country of origin.”

Seafood was subject to the most testing, accounting for 16.7% of tests applied. Horticultural products, including fresh and processed fruit and vegetables, were the next highest single commodity inspected.

The full report is available from www.daff.gov.au/biosecurity/import/food.