After extensive consultation with industry and consumers, the Australian Government announced a proposed new country of origin food labelling (CoOL) system on Tuesday 21 July 2015.
While Australia already has mandatory CoOL for food, consumers find current origin labels confusing or unhelpful. The Australian Government is proposing a new system to deliver clearer and more consistent country of origin food labels without imposing excessive cost on industry.
The proposed new system 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 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.
With state and territory agreement, the new system is expected to be in place by mid-2016, with a transitional period.
