The purpose of this notice is to advise food importers that the new requirements for declaring the country of origin on food labelling will be verified during border inspections from 1 July 2018.
What has changed?
The two year transition period for the food industry to migrate from the country of origin labelling requirements contained within the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code to the Country of Origin Food Labelling Information Standard 2016 comes to an end on 30 June 2018.
All food packaged up to the 30 June 2018 will be assessed as compliant if it complies with either the Information Standard or the Food Standards Code.
All food packaged from 1 July 2018 must comply with the Country of Origin Food Labelling Information Standard 2016.
The department will be regulating food imported to Australia for compliance with the Country of Origin Food Labelling Information Standard 2016 from 1 July 2018. The Imported Food Control Act 1992 has been amended to provide the legislative basis for the department to assess imported food for compliance.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has published a range of tools to assist the food industry in complying with the new labelling requirements. The following publications are available for download:
Country of Origin Food Labelling guide
Country of Origin Food Labelling factsheet
Information on country of origin claims
General information on the new requirements
Style guide video to explain the labelling
