FoodLegal Country of Origin Compliance Portal launches
FoodLegal has launched its new Country of Origin Compliance Portal.
The online portal allows users to access training videos on the new country of origin labelling laws and to quickly lodge a request to receive a quote on label reviews.
For a number of years, Australia has had unique mandatory Country of Origin labelling for foods. Now Australia’s system is being replaced with a far more stringent, complicated and also mandatory system.
Effective from 1 July 2016, significant changes have been made to the content and regulation of Australia’s Country of Origin Labelling declarations.
Under the new system, foods and beverages are being required to adopt new label formats. This is so, irrespective of where the foods come from, whether made in Australia or imported from other countries.
A dual system of the old and new laws operates during the current transition period.
Under the new system, the old Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code labelling requirements are replaced by a separate “Information Standard” created within the Australian Consumer Law. Food origin declarations will now fall squarely within the enforcement jurisdiction of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
New definitions of “priority food” and “non-priority food”, new criteria for “Made in Australia”, and many complexities and intricacies plus various choices for new visual formats, all require good compliance knowledge or legal advice.
To assist food companies (whether international or Australian) to make the transition, FoodLegal has launched its Country of Origin Compliance Portal which can be accessed now HERE.
