Australia – Update on the implementation of the Australian Government’s proposed Country Origin Labelling Reforms for food sold in Australia

The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science announced that on 31 March 2016, Commonwealth, state and territory ministers with responsibility for consumer affairs met and agreed to the Commonwealth’s preferred proposal for country of origin labelling reform, supported by a Decision Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS). See the Communique from the meeting.

There is still work to be done to finalise the reforms before they can officially commence. It is expected that reforms will commence from 1 July 2016 and business will have two years to transition to the new arrangements. In addition, current stock in trade will also be allowed to see out its use-by-date.

Work still to be done includes:

• registration, tabling and passing of changes to Australian Consumer Law (ACL) legislation including the new Information Standard and amendments to the ACL safe harbour defences;
• finalisation of an online tool, Style Guide and other resources to assist businesses to determine which labels to use, and to download label artwork; and
• a national information campaign to inform consumers and business about the reforms.

Click here for more information about the labelling reforms 

The new system, which was the result of extensive consultation with industry and consumers, will see the continuation of mandatory country of origin labelling for most food offered for retail sale in Australia. In addition to a statement about where the food was produced, grown, made or packaged, most Australian food will carry the familiar kangaroo symbol and an indication of the proportion of Australian ingredients by weight through a statement and a bar graph. The new system will also see clearer rules around when food labels can carry ‘made in’ or ‘packed in’ statements.