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The number of food products - even Kiwi staples such as Sanitarium peanut butter - now made from imported products has created a groundswell of nervousness around food safety issues, campaigners say.
Products from trusted brands such as Watties, Pam's and Sanitarium, plus increasing varieties of meat, seafood, fruit and vegetables imported from countries such as China, have touched a nerve with consumers, as a campaign for mandatory country-of-origin labelling is renewed in Parliament.
Last week, the Green Party launched its latest campaign for food labelling on fresh and frozen produce and other foods with only one main ingredient.
Green MP Sue Kedgley told the Herald on Sunday that petitions were now being circulated around the country to change New Zealand's controversial stance which allows manufacturers to choose whether to specify the source countries of their ingredients on labels. Many currently indicate only that the ingredients are imported.
But, a Herald on Sunday examination of food product labels showed how far afield countries of origin are, and how much Chinese produce lines our pantries, despite recent scares over food safety standards there.
It's well known that New Zealand garlic has been losing out on the grocery shelves to cheaper Chinese imports. Less well known, perhaps, is the range of canned and frozen food that comes from abroad.
Rob Chemaly of Foodstuffs told the Herald on Sunday that 75 per cent of Pam's and Budget frozen, tinned and chilled produce by volume, and 80 per cent by value, is sourced locally.
The other 25 per cent comes from a variety of countries, including China, the United States, African nations and Italy.
A quick survey of the shelves revealed that Pam's tomatoes with basil and oregano come from Italy, Pam's canned strawberries, canned diced peaches, peanut butter and mandarin segments in a jar come from China, as do Budget whole peeled tomatoes in juice.
Other brands that source produce from China include Delish (canned blackberries) and Eta (peanut butter).
Peter Silcock of Horticulture New Zealand said a lot of frozen broccoli was imported, often from China. Apart from garlic, Ya (white) pears were the main fresh Chinese produce imports.
Horticulture New Zealand is backing the campaign for compulsory food labelling because it believes consumers have a right to know where their food comes from.
Silcock said labelling could be done relatively cheaply for fresh fruit and vegetables by writing the country of origin next to the price, as some grocers already did. Other countries where labelling was already mandatory, such as Australia, had managed to absorb the extra costs.
As well as having safety worries, Silcock said he had heard from consumers who wanted to support local growers and from people who preferred the taste of local produce.
Celebrity chef Ruth Pretty is convinced that Kiwi-grown produce tastes better. Her company does a line of fruit preserves, and when she compared jam made with New Zealand frozen raspberries to jam made with their imported equivalent, she was surprised by the difference. "The imported raspberries produced jam that was darker, had much smaller seeds, and if you closed your eyes, all you could taste was the sweetness and the seeds, whereas the jam from New Zealand raspberries tasted of raspberries. We should be so proud of our produce because it's so distinctive."
Pierre van Heerden of Sanitarium said the company used to source its peanut butter from Australia and the US, but it shifted production to China late last year to remain competitive with other brands, most of whom also now manufacture in China.
He said the company spent 18 months finding a factory that adhered to its safety and quality standards and philosophy, ensuring there was no cadmium soil contamination in that region, for example. It also routinely tested the peanut butter in China and on arrival in New Zealand, using its own labs and independent firms.
"We have our own set of standards that are higher than a lot of other producers here." He said while the standards of the Government's watchdog, the Food Safety Authority, were "world class", Sanitarium's own standards were "at the top" of the range of international standards, which vary from country to country.
Kedgley told the Herald on Sunday that China's food safety and quality standards were lower than would be expected here, and New Zealand safety checks on imported food could miss potentially dangerous pesticide and industrial contaminants.
Recent Chinese food scandals have fuelled safety fears about produce from that country. In June, the US set limits on imports of some Chinese farmed seafood after tests found a quarter of sampled products contained trace levels of banned chemicals. At the time, the Food Safety Authority said the levels were too low to pose a risk to humans, and other countries hadn't put in place any limits.
The Authority has repeatedly refuted Kedgley's attacks on its standards. But Kedgley said New Zealanders cared deeply about the issue.
