Transtasman food body set to show legal teeth

By Greg Ansley

An overhaul of rules on food production in New Zealand and Australia will change the way the industry operates.

New standards being finalised by the Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) are designed to leapfrog from the anachronisms of a meat-and-two-veg regime to a future dominated by rapid scientific and technical change, and by vastly different consumer demands.

They may also help reshape the food industry in both countries as uniform standards enable easier shifts in production and exports across the Tasman.

Some may reach into entirely new areas.

Takeaway foods, for example, could ultimately be drawn into labelling laws by the acceleration of technology and social monitoring to determine where New Zealanders and Australians get the essential elements of their diets.

Linked to truth-in-advertising goals, this could see takeaway chains having to determine and display the key ingredients in meat pies, hamburgers or sausages - as manufacturers will have to do for their products under proposals now near completion.

Authority board member Professor Mark Wahlqvist, associate dean of international health and development at Monash University faculty of medicine, said the diets of Australians were being monitored through computer modelling.

"So if it comes to a question of the children of a certain age group having sufficient protein, and if they are getting that protein from meat pies, then that would influence our decisions," he said.

New rules on the labelling of genetically modified foods are already on their way.

Wellington and Canberra have agreed to a system of assessment and approval of all genetically modified products before they come on to the market, and to new labelling standards.

These extend beyond "substantially altered" goods to every commodity, additive or processing ingredient included in a product, and require a declaration on the label.

Where there is uncertainty, the label must warn consumers the item may contain genetically modified products.

Also drawing close are new universal food standards to replace the obsolete codes and regulations.

ANZFA general manager Ian Lindenmeyer said: "This is a major, major subject of work for the authority and one which stands to bring considerable benefits to the community and to the industries of Australia and New Zealand.

"Many of the present regulations are seriously out of date and do not wholly reflect contemporary scientific and technical knowledge."

ANZFA board member and NZ Dairy Corporation strategic development manager Owen Symmans said food regulations were even more antiquated in New Zealand than across the Tasman.

ANZFA says many standards reflect outmoded bureaucratic demands, requiring manufacturers to follow specified recipes at a time when consumers are demanding greater variety.

Consumer demands extend past the shedding of old staples.

Health is also playing a key role.

"It reflects a much greater enlightenment about diet and the importance of diet."

ANZFA is trying to extract from food laws the rules that make it difficult for manufacturers to respond to changing tastes.

Mr Lindenmeyer said: "We are looking to avoid unnecessary burdens on food manufacturers - burdens which don't square with any particular values in terms of the health or the safety of the population and other important considerations, but which at the same time complicate and increase costs to manufacturers and thereby add to the price to the consumer."

But the decision to remove many of the old requirements had created concerns among consumers fearing a wave of deception in advertising.

The authority had drawn up a proposal, yet to be finalised, for percentage labelling of the key or defining ingredients.

"This will enable consumers to look at the label and see the defining elements - the key element of this food, if it's an apple pie, is apple, and 30 per cent by weight of this product is apple," said Mr Lindenmeyer.

The downside for the food industry is the extra costs caused by such factors as seasonal and manufacturing line variations that will mean fluctuating levels of key ingredients in products on supermarket shelves.

To ease this, the authority proposes a system requiring a statement of minimum percentage content on labels.

But under the proposed new transtasman standards, manufacturers will also have to display on all foods key nutrient labels, including the levels of fat, energy, protein, carbohydrate and sodium.

ANZFA hopes to have the standards adopted late next year, and phased in over the following 18 months.