MEDIA ADVISORY

Health Ministers Make Historic Decision On Food Regulation

The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Council (ANZFSC), meeting in Sydney today, agreed to a number of important food issues including the adoption of a new Food Standards Code for Australia and New Zealand. This marks a significant step in closer economic relations between Australia and New Zealand. Food manufacturers in both countries will be working under a common Code.

ANZFSC consists of the New Zealand and Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory Health Ministers.

Joint Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code

ANZFSC adopted a new joint Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, which would provide an updated food regulatory system for both countries.

The new Code will require that all food is labelled with nutritional information and the percentage of the key ingredient so that consumers can make informed decisions about the food they buy.

Ministers also agreed to extend the mandatory nutrition panel to include information on saturated fats and sugars, as well as total fats, protein, energy (kilojoules), carbohydrates and sodium.

Ministers agreed to a two-year implementation period to enable industry to minimise their costs by making changes when they next reprint their labels. Ministers also noted that the new Code would simplify regulations for industry by removing most of the detailed compositional requirements in the standards, but would retain a basic compositional standard for ice cream, cream, yoghurt, chocolate, fruit juice drinks, peanut butter and jam, in addition to those already recommended.

Ministers also agreed to set up an inter-governmental task force to work with ANZFA to consider and report back to Ministers, by March 2001, on:

the threshold at which very small businesses are exempt from the nutrition and percentage labelling requirements;
strategies for practical and lowest cost implementation of the new Code;
minimum compositional standards for ice cream, cream, yoghurt, chocolate, fruit juice drinks, peanut butter and jam;
where a nutrition claim is made for a food, whether a nutrition information panel containing more detailed information on the types of fats, carbohydrates and dietary fibre will be required;
progress on the guidelines being developed on characterising ingredient identification; and
some options to address the seasonal variation in protein levels of milk in Western Australia.

The adoption of the Code follows a six-year review by the Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) in consultation with industry, consumers and professional groups.

ANZFSC also agreed that, during the transition period, ANZFA would review the following standards: infant formula, dietary supplements, sports foods, kava, country of origin labelling, health claims, medical foods and maximum residue limits for antibiotics and certain microbiological standards.

Food safety standards (Australia only)

ANZFSC agreed to the adoption of a Food Safety Program standard with each Australian jurisdiction free to decide on whether to implement the standard and its application to the various groups of food businesses. Ministers will consider uniform mandatory Food Safety Programs next year after receiving the results of a Commonwealth research program about the incidence of food borne illness and the most cost effective method of introducing food safety standards. In July 2000 Ministers agreed to adopt three other uniform food safety standards to reduce the amount of food borne illness and these standards will come into force in February 2001.

The approval of five more genetically modified foods

ANZFSC has approved a further five genetically modified foods derived from: insect protected corn, glyphosate-tolerant cotton, glyphosate-tolerant corn, glyphosate-tolerant canola and high oleic acid soybeans. The ANZFA safety assessment process has shown that these GM foods are as safe as, and with no more risks, than the conventional foods. Ministers have already approved two other genetically modified foods derived from: Roundup Ready soy and Ingard cotton in July 2000. The remaining assessments will be sent to Ministers shortly.

The labelling of genetically modified foods

Ministers agreed to the labelling of genetically modified foods at their previous meeting in Wellington on 28 July 2000. This new standard is now finalised and will be incorporated in the new joint Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.

A guideline on the labelling of GM foods will now be distributed for public consultation, with comments sought by early February.