Submissions

3 May 2005

Submission to Proposal P292 Country of Origin Labelling of Food

Rural Women New Zealand is the leading rural women's organisation in New Zealand . We represent the interests of over 4000 members from more than 300 branches from North Cape to the Bluff. Since 1925 we have been providing rural women with a national voice on rural issues and a local framework for social and educational opportunities.

Rural Women New Zealand provides the following submission to the Draft Assessment of Proposal P292 Country of Origin labelling:

The current proposal is an improvement on the current labelling situation in New Zealand but it does not meet our needs as consumers because it still fails to require identification of the country or origin of many foods.

1. Packaged foods - Clause 2

We support sub-clause (a) that provides for representation that identifies the country of origin of the food.

We support sub-clause (b) that provides for a statement that the food is imported, but this should be accompanied by the name of the country from which it is imported.

We support sub-clause (c)(i) that identifies the country where the food was made, manufactured or packaged for retail sale;

We require sub-clause (c)(ii) be altered to require the label to identify the country of origin of the major ingredients in a food, such as the pork in a pork sausage.

2. Unpackaged foods - Clause 3

This clause is totally inadequate.

We require labelling requirements apply to meat as well as fish, fruit and vegetables.

We require that the country of origin must be displayed prominently in connection with the display of the food.

We require that sub-clause 3(1)(b) be deleted, because this sub-clause allows the retailer to NOT display the information on country or origin, which is completely unacceptable to us as consumers. The country of origin must be displayed in conjunction with the unpackaged food .

Further we require these labelling requirements to commence one year from Gazettal, not two.

As consumers we have an absolute right to know where our food comes from, especially when there is a public health imperative occasioned by diseases such as BSE and chicken flu present in the country or origin. It is our choice whether we eat food from those countries. The current FSANZ proposal does not require sufficient information on country of origin to meet our needs.

We therefore request that you amend the proposal to incorporate our requirements for country of origin labelling, so that all imported foods, packaged and unpackaged, clearly identify country of origin, including the country of origin of the major food ingredients.

President

Rural Women New Zealand