30 May 2001

15/01

FULL ASSESSMENT

PROPOSAL P232 - COMPOSITIONAL STANDARDS

At their 12^th meeting on 24 November 2000, Australian and New Zealand Health Ministers, meeting as the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Council (ANZFSC), adopted the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code ( known as Volume 2 of the Food Standards Code ). This Code is now gazetted and after a 2-year transition period is scheduled to become the sole Code in Australia and New Zealand. In reaching this decision, Ministers requested that an Inter-Governmental Task Force be established to provide further advice and report to them by March of 2001 on a number of key issues including compositional standards for  'Icon Foods' or 'Standards of Identity' .

In seeking advice on the need to reinstate compositional standards, Ministers were clear in agreeing that existing provisions in the Joint Code would continue to apply. An additional issue that Ministers directed the Task Force to consider was minimum protein requirements in milk to accommodate seasonal variation in some parts of Australia.

At their inaugural meeting, 19 December 2000, the Taskforce agreed to pursue compositional standards of identity for selected foods, compromising:

o  chocolate,

o  fruit juice drinks,

o  fruit juice sugar content,

o   jam,

o   ice cream,

o   cream, and

o   yoghurt,

under the section 36 provisions of the ANZFA Act.

Section 36 of the Act provides considerable scope to 'fast track' proposals. Section 36 allows the Authority to decide to omit one round of public consultation and the enquiry phase provided the proposal raises issues of minor significance or complexity, or, the omission will not have a significant adverse affect on the interests of anyone.

The ANZFA Board agreed to raise proposals in line with the Taskforce agreement on 30 January 2001.

Drafting to give effect to changes in compositional standards, including minimum protein levels in milk, were agreed to by the Task Force at a meeting on 8 February 2001 and public consultation on the issue was variously undertaken in Australia and New Zealand between 17 February and 6 April 2001.

Public responses were generally in favour of the proposed drafting except for means of regulating protein levels in milk. Public comment was in favour of a simpler option of reducing the protein requirement in the current standard from 3.1% to 3.0% - an option raised in the consultation paper.

One unresolved issue was establishment of a minimum compositional requirement for fruit in jam. An impasse on this issue arose from New Zealand submissions that disagreed with the suggested 40% ingoing fruit requirement preferring that a 35% ingoing fruit requirement be set in line with existing New Zealand Food Regulations. The Task Force agreed to refer this issue to a face-to-face meeting of ANZFSC for resolution. Drafting to give effect to the 40% requirement is attached as a platform for decision-making by ANZFSC Minister.

The Task Force finalised its recommendations after review of public comments at a teleconference on 11 April 2001.

The ANZFA Board met on 9 May 2001 and agreed to draft variations to the  Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code to give effect to the recommendations of the Task Force.

STATEMENT OF REASONS

ANZFA recommends the adoption of the draft variations for the following reasons:

·   TheAustralia New Zealand Food Standards Code  has significantly altered the basis on which foods are regulated in Australia and New Zealand.

·   Historically, food regulation depended upon detailed compositional (recipe) standards for foods and food groups. These standards reflected a relatively narrow food supply with most foods being regulated through specific compositional requirements. Over time, with the introduction of new foods, ingredients, technologies and with changing tastes in the consuming public, more and more foods were not regulated by specific compositional standards, but fell into broad miscellaneous or mixed food categories. In recognition of this, the new Code has sought to broaden permission for the use of food ingredients and food technology, while strengthening information requirements on food so that consumers can have access to information to make informed choices.

·   These changes have included strengthening ingredient listing, added water labelling, nutrition information, and percentage labelling for key and characterising ingredients. Together this framework has largely removed the need for specific compositional benchmarks in the Code.

·   There is however, concern that removal of compositional benchmarks for some ' icon ' foods may result in a loss of integrity for these well known products. Submissions around these issues identified the following foods were in this category:

o  chocolate;

o  fruit juices and fruit drinks;

o  peanut butter;

o  jam;

o  cream;

o  ice cream; and

o  yoghurt.

·  Seasonal and regional variation of minimum protein levels in milk was also addressed.

·  Consistent with the broad philosophy o f the new Code, the approach taken to introduction of standards for these  'icon' foods was to define the compositional parameters for key ingredients within these foods. These parameters are broadly consistent with previous requirements in Volume 1 of the  Food Standards Code  and in the New Zealand Food Regulations.

·  Submissions from both industry and public groups on the draft standards developed by the Task Force demonstrated broad support for their introduction.

MINISTERS' OPTIONS

In dealing with the ANZFA's recommendations, section 28 of the Act provides Council with the following options:

(a)  adopt the draft standard or the draft variation of the standard; or

(b)  make any amendments that it considers necessary to the draft standard or the draft variation of the standard and adopt the draft as so amended; or

(c)  reject the draft standard or the draft variation of the standard; or

(d)  return the draft standard or the draft variation of the standard to ANZFA for reconsideration in whole or part by ANZFA.

REGULATION IMPACT

The introduction of these standards essentially maintains standards already in existence. Thus as the proposed standards do not significantly alter current regulation, there is no requirement for a regulation impact assessment. The Task Force represented all States and Territories and New Zealand, thus constituting a coordinated consensual approach from all jurisdictions.

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) NOTIFICATION

Australia and New Zealand are members of the WTO and are bound as parties to WTO agreements. In Australia, an agreement developed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) requires States and Territories to be bound as parties to those WTO agreements to which the Commonwealth is a signatory. Under the agreement between the Governments of Australia and New Zealand on Uniform Food Standards, ANZFA is required to ensure that food standards are consistent with the obligations of both countries as members of the WTO.

In certain circumstances Australia and New Zealand have an obligation to notify the WTO of changes to food standards to enable other member countries of the WTO to make comment. Notification is required in the case of any new or changed standards which may have a significant trade effect and which depart from the relevant international standard (or where no international standard exists).

Introduction of compositional standards for the nominated foods into the joint Code essentially extends regulations in existence in the Food Standards Code and does not constitute new regulatory measures that would impact significantly on trade. While no WTO notification is therefore required, a notification will be made for information purposes.

DRAFT VARIATIONS TO THE AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND FOOD STANDARDS CODE

Chocolate

To commence: On gazettal

[1] Volume 2 of the Food Standards Code is amended by deleting the definition of chocolate in Standard 1.1.2, substituting -

chocolate means the confectionery product characterised by the presence of cocoa bean derivatives -

(a) prepared from a minimum of 200 g/kg of cocoa bean derivatives; and

(b)  which contains no more than 50 g/kg of edible oils, other than cocoa butter or dairy fats.

Peanut butter

To commence: On gazettal

[2] Volume 2 of the Food Standards Code is amended by inserting in Standard 1.1.2 -

peanut butter means a peanut based spread containing no less than 850 g/kg of peanuts.

Jam

To commence: On gazettal

[3] Volume 2 of the Food Standards Code is amended by inserting immediately following Standard 2.3.1-

Standard 2.3.2

Jam and Related Products

Purpose

This Standard defines jam and marmalade and includes compositional requirements for the manufacture of those products.

Table of Provisions

1  Interpretation

2  Composition of jam

Clauses

1  Interpretation

In this Code -

jam means the product prepared by processing one or more of the following 

(a)  fruit; and

(b)  sugars or honey; and

(c)  fruit juice; and

(d)  concentrated fruit juice; and

(e)  water extracts of fruit;

and includes conserve, but excludes marmalade.

2 Composition of jam

(1) Each kilogram of jam must be made from no less than [400] grams of the fruit or fruits named in the label.

(2) Jam must contain no less than 650 g/kg of water-soluble solids.

Minimum Protein Requirements for Milk

To commence: On gazettal

[4] Volume 2 of the Food Standards Code is amended by deleting the Table to subclause 2(1) of Standard 2.5.1, substituting -

Table to subclause 2(1)

[5] Volume 2 of the Food Standards Code is amended by deleting the Table to subclause 3(1) of Standard 2.5.1, substituting -

Table to subclause 3(1)

 

[6] Volume 2 of the Food Standards Code is amended by deleting the Table to subclause 2(3) of Standard 2.5.3, substituting -

Table to subclause 2(3)

Cream

To commence: On gazettal

[7] Volume 2 of the Food Standards Code is amended by deleting subclause 2(1) of Standard 2.5.2, substituting -

(1)  Subject to subclause (2), cream must contain no less than 350 g/kg of milk fat.

Ice Cream

To commence: On gazettal

[8] Volume 2 of the Food Standards Code is amended by deleting clause 1 and clause 2 of Standard 2.5.6, substituting -

1 Interpretation

In this Code -

ice cream means a sweet frozen food made from cream or milk products or both, and other foods, and is generally aerated.

2  Composition

Ice cream must contain no less than -

(a)  100 g/kg of milk fat; and

(b)  168 g /Litre of food solids.

To commence: On gazettal

[9] Standard 2.6.1 of Volume 2 of the Food Standards Code is amended by deleting clause 2 inserting -

2 Composition

Fruit juice or vegetable juice may have added to it any of the following foods -

(a) for vegetable juice, sugars;

(b)  for fruit juice, no more than 40 g/kg of sugars; and

(c)  salt; and

(d)  herbs and spices.

Fruit in fruit drink

To commence: On gazettal

[10] Standard 2.6.2 in Volume 2 of the Food Standards Code is amended by the renumbering of clauses 4, 5, 6 and 7 to clauses 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively, inserting immediately after clause 3 -

4   Composition of fruit drinks

Fruit drinks must contain no less that 50 mL/L of fruit, except in the case of passionfruit drink which must contain at least 3.5 mL/L of passion fruit, prepared from any of the sources specified under the definition for fruit drink in clause 1(a) to (f).