I just read an email from Woollies for Xmas gift suggestions which listed “100% Aussie watermelon” at the bottom of it.
It is reminiscent of the multitude of such statements on websites, in emails, in catalogues, on in-store signage, and everywhere else claiming that a single ingredient product is 100% Aussie.
So we can rest assured that the watermelon was not 50% grown in China, the Brussels Sprouts were not 25% grown in Belgium, the fish was not 75% caught in Brazil, and the beef was not 10% raised in the USA?
Whilst such claims may well be true, it is obviously just another attempt to manipulate consumers who do not think things through.
With new product labelling, consumers are possibly conditioned into seeing labels with percentage for Australian content in foods. Even the ACCC uses the 100% Australian term, namely…
Priority foods can only claim to be produced or grown in Australia if they contain 100 per cent Australian ingredients.
I suspect Woolworths and other supermarkets/green grocers/butchers which use 100% Australian are following that outlined by the ACCC.
It does seem odd because fresh whole unadulterated produce can only be either 100% Australian or 0% Australian (namely imported). I wonder if USA cherries would be labeled as 0% Aussie?
Not really serious but what if the fertilizer used was Australian manufactured, what if the seed was Australian produced…then maybe less than or near to 1% Australian product??
You are not going to find 53% of a watermelon made in Oz and 47% elsewhere. It is possible that some types of produce is from both local and overseas sources. It would be hard to label accurately so the exact composition of the asparagus at any given store would be unknown but overall 53% was local and 47% from Chile. So saying that some produce is 100% local is not entirely meaningless.
No, If the supermarkets have any sort of a mix of a fresh food product, then they have the signage state “Mixed Origin”.such as with citrus when transitioning between Australian and imported product.
I suppose a fresh fruit salad would be a good example where it may be made with both local and imported fresh fruit…but this possibly would be captured by existing reporting requirements nonetheless.
Another maybe blending multi-item packed products such as cherries/blueberries/strawberries. It may be possible to blend imported with Australian fruit in the same container to make the end product cheaper? I don’t really know why this would be done but it could be possible
