Stickers for all fruit likely

New Zealand apples with the new labelling all fruit would need. Picture / Paul Estcourt

If you're the type of person who hates having to peel off those annoying little stickers from your fruit before tucking in, things could be about to get worse.

Dairies, supermarkets, vege shops, seafood outlets, and butchers may soon be forced to label unpackaged or loose produce to show its country of origin if a proposal by Food Standards Australia New Zealand is adopted by a transtasman ministerial group.

The group meets in Sydney on October 28, but it is not known which New Zealand minister will attend because of the impending Cabinet reshuffle.

A document issued by FSANZ recommends that the origin of unpackaged foods - such as fruit, vegetables, seafood, pork, and nuts - be clearly visible to the consumer.

This could work by placing a sticker on an orange, FSANZ says, or through the use of a sign that had a print size of at least 9mm.

A New Zealand Food Safety policy spokeswoman, who refused to be named because the issue was sensitive and she was operating under a "caretaker Government", said the changes would bring New Zealand in to line with Australian regulations.

The seafood industry said it strongly objected to what was being proposed.

General manager of the New Zealand Seafood Industry Council Alastair MacFarlane said the effect on food safety was negligible and there was little or no benefit to the consumer.

Costs to retailers such as supermarkets would increase and the industry could ultimately pay by way of reduced demand, Mr MacFarlane said.

Mr MacFarlane was at a loss to explain why red meat and poultry were exempt.

FSANZ general manager Dean Stockwell said there had been "no strong submissions on those sorts of areas", in reference to the question of why red meat and poultry were being treated differently.

He did not wish to "single out any specific industry sector as having made a submission".

"We listen to everybody. There's a wide variety of views on this particular subject and we try to find the best balance. Sometimes it's not possible to reconcile all views."

The food safety spokeswoman admitted New Zealand had traditionally opposed labelling the country of origin because it was thought such a decision should be a commercial one, rather than a state-imposed one.

The ministerial council had 60 days in which to make a decision, the spokeswoman said.

The FSANZ document said if the council did not seek a review the new standard could become law as early as November.

The spokeswoman said New Zealand had the option of opting out of the standard, but the grounds for doing this were narrow.

Such a move had not been adopted before.

The Green Party has welcomed the proposed changes.

Australia's biggest farmer body, the New South Wales Farmers Association, has described the FSANZ plan for mandatory country-of-origin labelling as a minimum first requirement to guard against subsidised imports.

Pressure for country-of-origin labelling grew after the recent loss by potato farmers in Tasmania of a A$10 million ($10.9 million) a year potato contract with the McDonald's fast food chain.

McDonald's switched half its 40,000-tonne chip potato contract with the Australian Simplot group in Tasmania to global food giant McCain's - which is expected to source some of its supplies from New Zealand - sparking protests from farmers over the past month in major cities.