ANZFA launches a set of user guides to answer questions about the new food rules and the labelling of genetically modified food.
The Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) today launched a range of user guides to help food businesses, retailers and food officers to interpret and apply the new joint Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. A user guide on GM food labelling has also been developed by an inter-governmental task force and it, too, is now available in final form.
In launching the user guides ANZFA's General Manager Standards, Mr Peter Liehne said, 'In December last year, Food Standards Ministers agreed to a new Food Standards Code for Australia and New Zealand which will bring considerable benefits to both industry and consumers.
' These 12 plain English guides to the new Food Standards Code cover a range of issues including percentage labelling, ingredient labelling, warning and advisory statements, legibility, date marking and several food product standards. They were first made available in draft form last December and have been through several rounds of consultation with Australian and New Zealand government and industry representatives to make sure they meet the users' needs.
' Later in September, ANZFA will also be releasing a package to assist users with nutrition labelling. This will include a user guide and a free Internet-based nutrition panel calculator. This calculator will allow the recipé to be entered for any food and will print out a nutrition information panel for that food.
' The finalisation of this nutrition panel calculator is reliant on a minor amendment (section 36) to the new Food Standards Code, which will allow carbohydrate to be calculated by two methods: the current method ' by difference ' and the more up to date method ' by analysis ' . This matter will be put to ministers in September. Food industry members who would like to be kept informed about the new calculator can be put on an email notification list by emailing: npc@foodstandards.gov.au ' Mr Liehne concluded.
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For more information: The user guides are both on the ANZFA website www.anzfa.gov.au/food standards and available in hard copy through ANZFA's publishers Anstat. The user guides are a companion volume to the new Food Standards Code which is also available from Anstat. They can be ordered by calling +61 3 9278 1144 or via ANZFA' s website
Full list of user guides
Overview of Food Labelling - this guide provides background information on the general labelling requirements in the new Code. [ pdf ]
Legibility Requirements for Food Labels - this guide discusses ways of making information that must be included on a food label as easy to read as possible. [ pdf ]
Information Requirements for Foods Exempt from Bearing a Label - this guide looks at which foods are exempt from bearing a label and how consumers can be informed about these foods in other ways. [ pdf ]
Warning and Advisory Declarations - this guide defines mandatory prescribed, warning, and advisory statements and declarations, and identifies which foods must carry these statements and declarations.[ pdf ]
Ingredient Labelling - this guide explains ingredient labelling, when it is required, and the way in which it must be presented. [ pdf ]
Date Marking - this guide aims to help manufacturers decide whether food should be date-marked with a ' best-before' or a ' use-by' date.[ pdf ]
Percentage Labelling - this guide looks at the changes in percentage labelling requirements and which characterising ingredients or components should be declared in relation to food. [ pdf ]
Food Additives - this guide looks at how the new food additives standard brings together the food additives that may be used in all foods into one generic standard.[ pdf ]
Meat and Meat Products - this guide clarifies the intent of many of the provisions in Standard 2.2.1 and explains how other standards in the new Code relate to meat and meat products. [ pdf ]
Microbiological Limits for Foods - this guide explains information in the standard and presents new microbiological guideline criteria that are additional to the standard but not mandatory. [ pdf ]
Methods of Analysis for Foods - this guide will help analysts to choose appropriate methods of analysis for food where these are not specified in the new Code. [ pdf ]
Generally Expected Levels (GELS) for Metal Contaminants - this guide identifies a range of contaminant levels that would normally be expected in particular foods.[ pdf ]
GM Food Labelling - this guide, developed by the inter-governmental task force, helps explain the requirements for labelling genetically modified food which come into force in December 2001. [ pdf | html ]