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SA, QLD want tougher rules on ‘Made in Australia’ labels

Food companies who can currently get away with misleading labelling about the country of origin of a product will face tougher restrictions if Queensland and South Australian governments get their way.

The two states are working together to argue for better food labelling laws to enable consumers to make informed decisions when deciding on food.

Under current regulations, shoppers are being misled by products claiming to be Australian, and South Australian Minister for Business Services and Consumers John Rau wants that changed.

He wants less loopholes available to food manufacturers and suppliers, who are able to use the “made in Australia” label even if the product was fully imported.

There only has to be a suggestion that it was “substantially transformed” in Australia and half the cost of production occurred here for a product to display the label, and Rau says the rules create confusion for shoppers.

“In practice, this means that manufacturers can get the word ‘Australia’ on their goods, even if the
ingredients are entirely from overseas and more than 50 per cent of production costs occur in other
countries,” Rau said.

“I doubt whether many consumers would be aware that a product labelled ‘Made in Australia’ could
be manufactured from 100 per cent imported ingredients.”

Queensland and South Australian consumer affairs ministers decided at a recent meeting to call for tougher regulations to put in place, because current standards are not working.

“The new national consumer laws have not fixed the problem,” Rau said.

“In fact, they have increased confusion.

“South Australian consumers want to buy local to support Australian producers.

“Accurate country-of-origin food labelling is essential to enable consumers to make informed decisions.”

“A uniform approach to country-of-origin labelling is clearly required in the national consumer legislation and we will be working to produce a new proposal to clear up this confusing area,” he said.

“This new approach should make it perfectly clear where raw ingredients come from, regardless of how and where they are transformed.

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