Member's Bill
Explanatory note
General policy statement
The purpose of this Bill is to enshrine in law consumers' right to know the country in which the food they are purchasing originated from so that they can make informed purchasing decisions. There is already a requirement to identify where footwear and clothing comes from, and this Bill would extend it to fresh fruit, meat, fish, and vegetables as well.
This Bill is based on the concept that consumers have the right to sufficient accurate and meaningful information to enable them to make informed food purchasing decisions. The Bill requires that the country of origin of fruit, vegetables, meats, and seafood is clearly identified on labels or at the point of sale of the food. Because these are point of sale labels, there would be virtually no compliance costs in introducing them. The Bill also provides for the labelling of single component foods, which may also be at the point of sale of foods such as bulk flour, grains, and nuts, but for others products such as tinned tomatoes or cereals in packets, the country of origin would need to be on the product package. The Bill does not provide for the labelling of product manufactured with a number of ingredients because of the complexity in accurately identifying the country of origin of all ingredients, and because labelling a product as 'manufactured from New Zealand and imported ingredients' is meaningless to the consumer.
There are many reasons why consumers want to know which country their food comes from, and why consumers may wish to eat or avoid consuming foods from certain countries. Some consumers simply want to support local producers and the local economy. Some are concerned about the adequacy of quality control standards in some countries we import food from. Some are concerned about the environmental and other costs of transporting food long distances. Some are concerned about the use of post harvest fumigation and other treatments on imported produce or the potential residues of pesticides and other contaminants in imported foods.
Research shows that many consumers assume, in the absence of country of origin labelling, that all foods such as meat, fruit, fish, and vegetables are produced in New Zealand. In this situation a lack of country of origin labelling can be regarded as misleading and deceptive, and hence contrary to the Fair Trading Act and Codex guidelines for labelling food. This is a particular problem with food items that have been traditionally New Zealand-grown, but are now also imported.
The need for accurate, truthful, and meaningful food labelling is recognised by all the major national and international food standard setting agencies including the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, and the joint FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission.
The need for labelling that assists consumers to make informed purchasing decisions is also recognised in the objectives of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority and Food Standards Australia New Zealand.
Part 1
Preliminary provisions
This Part defines the purpose, the principles, and responsibilities related to the implementation of the provisions of the Bill.
Part 2
Country of origin
This Part requires that the country of origin of certain foods is clearly identified on labels or at the point of sale of food.
Jeanette Fitzsimons
Consumer's Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill
Member's Bill
Take in contents from text
The Parliament of New Zealand enacts as follows:
1 Title
This Act is the Consumer's Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Act 2009.
Part 1
Preliminary provisions
2 Commencement
This Act comes into force on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent.
3 Purpose
The purpose of this Act is—
(a) to require the Government to introduce a simple labelling system in New Zealand that provides consumers with sufficient accurate and meaningful information about the country of origin of certain foods to enable them to make informed food purchasing decisions:
(b) that requirements that affect the provisions of this Act are incorporated into the appropriate regulations, codes, and policies.
4 Administration of Act
The Minister for Food Safety is responsible for the implementation of this Act.
5 Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, country of origin means the country in which the food is grown or harvested
6 Principles relevant to purpose of Act
For the purposes of this Act, the following principles apply to every decision made or action undertaken:
(a) the right to know - everyone has the right to be provided with sufficient meaningful, truthful, and accurate information on a food product so as to enable them to make an informed purchasing decisions including about—
(i) whether it is produced locally or imported:
(ii) the country in which it was grown or harvested:
(b) truth in labelling - the consumer information that is declared on a food label must be accurate, accessible at the point of sale, complete and comprehensible in form, so as to enable a consumer to exercise freedom of choice in purchasing food.
7 Government responsible for implementation measures
The Government must ensure that the labelling requirement in Part 2 is enforced by an appropriate mechanism within the legal framework.
Part 2
Country of origin labelling
8 Packaged food
Packaged fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, and other single component foods placed on the market in New Zealand must have a label statement that identifies the country in which the food was grown or harvested.
9 Unpackaged food
Unpackaged fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, and other single component foods placed on the market in New Zealand must have a statement that identifies the country in which the food was produced clearly displayed in connection with the retail display of the food.
10 Foods to which this Act applies
This Act applies to—
(a) fresh seafood, including prawns, shrimps, crabs, shellfish, cut fish, filleted fish, and seafood that has undergone any other processing including cooking, smoking, drying, pickling, freezing, canning, or coating with another food:
(b) fresh and frozen meat, whole or cut, including meat that has been preserved by curing, drying, smoking, canning, or by other means, except where that product has been mixed with food not regulated by this paragraph (other than ingredients used in the preserving):
(c) fresh whole or cut fruit and vegetables
(d) canned, dried, or frozen fruit, and vegetables, where they are a single component (other than water, sugar or its substitutes, salt, or other ingredients used in preserving)
(d) nuts, seeds, grains and any other food, either whole or processed, where they are a single component product.
