Ministers meet to discuss food labelling

Food labelling was one focus of a meeting of Australia’s Consumer Affairs ministers in Adelaide on Friday. The Legislative and Governance Forum on Consumer Affairs (CAF) met to discuss, among other subjects, how to deal with misleading or deceptive food labelling.

“The terms that are currently used in food labelling, especially in relation to a product’s country of origin, can be confusing for consumers,” said John Rau, Minister for Business Services and Consumers, who chaired the meeting.

“South Australia has been working very closely with other state regulators and the Commonwealth on this issue,” Rau said on Friday. “Today’s meeting will consider a proposal that the regulators jointly develop and implement a national approach to addressing consumer concerns.”

While Rau was enthusiastic prior to the meeting, the communique issued by the group following the meeting was somewhat vague on what decisions the group reached.

The group resolved that Australian enforcement agencies “be asked to focus on greater cooperation to increase enforcement and prosecution activity” with regards to food labelling and “agreed that the ACCC communicate with the retail sector with a view to warning them of the consequences of prosecution for breach of the ACL [Australian Consumer Law]”.

The ministers “noted a strong [consumer] interest” in “food labelling and the perception of failure in the marketplace”. The CAF will receive a report on this issue at its December meeting in Sydney.