BioSolids!
The news some may not need.
Australian sewage treatment waste (biosolids) are used in local agriculture and in producing composts. The second may find it’s way into potting mixes.
Use or disposal is regulated in each state. One example for NSW.
It’s unlikely to be found even in the fine print of a product label.
This isn’t correct. The pork industry would like to export a lot more pork to China, but currently pork exports predominantly go to NZ, Vietnam, Philippines and Singapore. China doesn’t appear in the top 20 countries Australia exports to, see the table in:
http://australianpork.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/ImportExport-Dom-Prod-Jun-report-1.pdf
My understanding is only processed/cured/cooked pork products can be imported provided they meet Australia"s biosecurity requirements. Fresh (or uncooked) pork can’t be imported due to disease/ biosecurity risks.
Pork production in Australia has been relatively constant over recent time, see chart in above report
Biosolids are sewage sludge treated as to eliminate health risks.
I would be more trusting of Australia for a stricter monitoring of the guidelines.
In Australia biosolids are a regulated waste and there is extensive monitoring of their use. This is unlike other organic farm inputs such as animal manures or other resource recovery products (e.g. composts produced from the waste stream) which has either no or very limited monitoring requirements.
Fresh unprocessed manures often used in market gardens or other higher intensity farming can pose high heath risks as they can contain human health impacting pathogens.
There has been surveys done by the waste industry that concerns about biosolids may be due to the ‘yukiness’ or origin, rather than based on science.
While risks can exist with biosolids when used inappropriately, the risks are potentially less to no different to other farm inputs.
Edit: being regulated, only higher quality biosolids can be applied to land used for agriculture. Biosolids applied to land must be tested to ensure that their application doesn’t cause and unwanted impacts. Under HACCP, foods with direct contact or have potential to be splashed with soil (e.g.root crops, leafy vegetables etc) can be sold if the soil has been treated with biosolids during the crops production. The Commonwealth and state governments have restrictive guidelines to their use. It is more than likely one eats foods grown in Australia which have, in part, been grown on biosolid treated soils.
It is worth noting that none of these requirements relating to biosolid use apply to manures or reclaimed organic wastes when used in similar ways.
When I was in the CMF, (Army Reserve), some 50 years ago, we were told about the Japanese in the islands near PNG who were starving near the end of WWII and resorted to using human waste as fertilizer to grow veggies.
They had major outbreaks of disease, probably dysentery, which rendered them ineffective.
I don’t think anybody is suggesting that untreated sewage is used on food crops, or any crops. Sewage sludge is sterilised to destroy microorganisms. It isn’t the bugs that may be a problem it is components that survive sterilisation that may be present in harmful amounts.
One example are heavy metals that may concentrate in the sludge and if sludge is applied often may accumulate in the soil and damage some crops. Some crops may take it up from the soil. But before we get too down on sludge (which has such a murky origin to start with) there are plenty of ways to get contamination into your soil.
To give just one example, a common soil amendment is dolomite. It is impure calcium magnesium carbonate, which can be used like limestone to raise the pH of soil and has the added benefit of supplying magnesium which may be very beneficial in some soils. This kind of mineral is much loved by organic growers and is accepted by organic standards as a bona fide input. The problem is that some sources of dolomite contain appreciable amounts of cadmium, which may accumulate in the soil from frequent application and in sufficient concentration may do harm.
So we could start from saying some countries don’t consistently manage and monitor sludge application to crops soils properly, and that this may mean (non biological) nasties can be found in the soil, which may mean such substances turn up in food crops, and then conclude that one will never eat imported foods again.
Or we could take a different view and ask is there any evidence that harmful pollutants actually make their way into imported food from sludge and ask how often this happens and how serious it is, and does it happens much more than in locally produced food. I don’t know the answers to all those questions but I think they ought be asked before drawing blanket conclusions about the safety of eating imported food.
For those who did not read a little further @phb link previous, the Australian Pork Industry has gone one step further than Australia’s Country of Origin Labelling system.
A bit like an appellation certification?
Australia tends not to follow as obsessively the European Protection of regional sources and product variances. Whether such differentiation bestows special properties on imported EU products, other than premium pricing is an open question.
That’s a valid point @syncretic
But as you have stated that you don’t know the answers to questions which ought to be asked, would you care to expand as to where do you think those answers might be found?
There are a lot of answers on government websites…the regulators of its use…such as…
What also needs to be recognised is that the soil is naturally full of living organisms, some which can pose a significant health issues (anthrax and Tetanus are two examples). Soils also naturally have heavy metals and other compounds often also found in biosolids (resulting from the upstream waste water system catchment).
Biosolids can also contain endocrine disruptors and other chemicals (such as residual pharmaceuticals), but most of these break down rapidly within the solid through microbial action.
Soil itself can pose risks as well…along with those outlined above…and is why it is recommended that any purchased fresh fruit and vege is washed and/or peeled before consumption.
There has been scare mongering media reports such as imported foods from Asia or USA containing human faeces, but these are often beat ups from vested interest groups (such as vegetable industry groups trying to promote buy Australian).
Biosolids (more correctly faecal materials from people and animals) have also been used as an agricultural input in many countries for many centuries. It is not a new invention and when used appropriately, has no different risks to any other agricultural inputs.
Disclosure: I have worked in the waste industry processing biosolids for landscaping materials and have also provided lectures on their use. I possibly should have disclosed this earlier as I have had an interest in their reuse in the past.
I’m sorry @phb
Syncretic was referring to asking questions about the safety of eating ‘imported’ foods?
There should be no difference in theory between local and imported foods. It could be argued that imported foods may be safer in some respects as they are subject to testing…
Local foods, especially those which are not HACCP certified (e.g. food from markets etc) don’t have any testing and trust must be placed in the hands of the grower that they have done the right thing with the use of any organic, natural or synthetic/chemical inputs.
I was speaking from the point of view of process and method, what kind of investigation is likely to produce useful results. I have not started out on such a study.
Do you think that logo also gets affixed when, say a government sports grant lands in one’s lap to build a women’s change building when there are no women?
Fox, Mongoose, Bilby, Rabbit, Snake, Lizard … … 
sorry …
Seems to me like expertise/experience rather than any conflict …
It might need wings to avoid a Trade Mark dispute.
(Symbolic of the relationship to the donors, nothing else.)
Great experience if you ever need to downgrade to politics for a career change. Now we all know what organic means in all those garden improvement products. Not sure if the potting mix and soil conditioning suppliers will be as appreciative of the disclosure. 
If anyone is interested in responding directly to the government, rather than through Choice, and most likely you can do both and be double-counted, 
…
https://consult.industry.gov.au/cool-taskforce/evaluation-of-country-of-origin-labelling-for-food/
However the deadline is imminent.
A big plus for Vietnam is they’ve banned glyphosate. Aldi’s frozen mango is from Vietnam. Thailand banned it, but it was later reversed due to pressure from farmers and the US.
There is a whole thread on the risks of glyphosate. It is by no means clear whether it is a bogie or not.
Has any glyphosate been detected in Aldi’s frozen mango?
Hi @Heather3, welcome to the community.
What the question should be is what has it been replaced with. Other agricultural chemicals will still be used and many would pose a far greater risk than glyphosate. Another consideration is that Vietnam is heavily contaminated with war residues which can easily also end up in the food chain.
I am not saying that Aldi’s mangoes are contaminated, but the risks of contamination from non-glyphosate chemicals is real.
The current labelling is deficient as it lacks sufficient detail. It is not good enough to state “Made in Australia from at least 80% Australian ingredients”. What are the other ingredients and where from? (This is on MasterFoods Sweet & Sour Sauce.) I will not eat any food from Asian nations such as China and Vietnam or from New Zealand (who specialize in repackaging foods from China for the Australian market). As for statements that it would cost too much, they would be aware of the foreign content when determining Australian content. Besides which, what price on our health? On of the first items on packaging is the label stating nutrition information and in particular the percentage of sugar.
