I like many people thought “Finally” we will be able to make a quick choice in purchasing Australian products & rest easy in the knowledge I wasn’t being duped by some overseas corporation. But now it isn’t mandatory until 30/06/2018. I hope all Australian owned businesses use the labels as soon as possible.
I would like to see the same label format used on all manufactured products as well,so you can see at a glance how much of the product or item is actually made here or just assembled here.
After reading Choice articles on the subject & looking on http://www.australianmade.com.au/latest-news/2016/new-country-of-origin-food-labels-are-here/ I feel very dejected & annoyed that I have made purchases thinking I was supporting Australian business but wasn’t! How do we fix this? Penalties are a joke to most of these Corporations & they have no problem outright lying on the labels. **So What Do We Do! You tell me.
Dejected but Hopeful
Pegasus.
Are you hoping there will be a person standing at the end of the aisle in a supermarket selling you the Australian product that you desire? That would just escalate the cost. I realise and understand that it takes time and a lot of the time you do take is wasted because products do not have “AUSTRALIAN MADE” on them. Unless you can make a social movement that will boycott any items not made in Australia using Australian materials. Manufacturers are after the profit so you can’t really blame them.
I am pleased the new labeling is finally, albeit slowly, coming in.
I have had gripes with the term made in Australia and have been annoyed by its blatant overuse/misuse for foreign products. I have seen dried fruit not grown in Australian commercially labeled as ‘Made in Australia from local and imported ingredients’. Anyone reading the label would think that there is potential that the dried fruit is Australian…not realising that the fruit is not commercially grown in Australia and therefore would not be in mass produced packaging in private label supermarket products. About the only Australian component would be the air within the packaging and potentially the packaging itself.
Using the Australian flag has also annoyed me as well. One particular supermarket is renown for using Australian flags on ‘Made in Australia from local and imported ingredients’…some of these products are delivered in bulk to Australia, mixed and then bagged for retail sale. Like above (dried fruit example), they are not Australian and the Australian flag is misleading labeling/advertising. They even use the Australian flag in the letterbox advertising material for non-Australian products which are mixed and bagged in Australia.
Implementation is slow and inadequate, as usual the law reflects the minimum the product makers will concede.
Let’s stop expecting the majority to have a say in the way manufacturers inform us.
Every product has a unique QR code and there are apps for your mobile phone to scan the code. The code already tells us things about the product, it should be a simple matter to add all the (currently) in-house information about the product.
With popular support an organisation like Choice has the clout to mount a FOI class action demanding every product sold in Australia make the info available to link to the scanner database.
My current complaint is Potato crisps that say they are “Proudly made in Australia” which probably means that the potatoes they contain are probably imported. If they were locally grown the crisps would be Product of Australia or Made in Australia from Australian potatoes.
It’s great news to hear that food labelling laws have been changed. Especially in the area of “Made from local and imported ingredients”, but what use is it if the companies are not compelled to tell us which country they have sourced the material from? Looking at a product label now for Moroccan Pumpkin with Chickpea soup, it says: “packed in Thailand from local and imported ingredients.” The first three ingredients are Water, Pumpkin and Lentils.
Here is a cheap tactic i only noticed today whilst shopping at aldi when shopping. Brand is called damora rice crackers pain ones,up till only today they were made in australia now it says made on cambodia. they both looked so similar except the aussie one had a lighter blue color packaging compared to the import one.Choice i would recommend this be put up as a shonky award it deserves it in my opinion. Pathetic they are aldi even plain crackers are being made cheaply overseas.cant believe that next time i will buy them elsewhere.
I have included the photos as evidence both are fronts and backs of each packet to show you it clearly says my older packet previously purchased saying made in aus.whilst the newer one says made in cambodia ok
