Food Labelling

1
Food Labelling
2
Why need food legislation?

• Protect public health and safety
• Guarantee consumer protection
• Fair trading
• Protect against misleading information

3
Consider the following

• Food hygiene standards
• Stop foods not meeting standards from entering
  country
• Control of levels of pesticides, toxins
• Manufacturers and importers should be able to be
  traced
• Fair trading
• Regulate claims which can be made on products

4
Code covers.

• Safety of food
• Composition of food, max and min amounts,
  contaminants, additives
• Methods of sampling and testing of food to
  determine composition and safety
• Production, manufacture or preparation
• Packaging, storage etc
• Info on food-labelling
• Food matters affecting health of persons
  consuming food

5
Food Standards Code

• Food standards between Australia and NZ have been
  harmonised
• From Dec 2002 all foods in Aust and NZ must be
  follow joint FSC
• Replaces NZ Food Regulations and Australian Food
  Standards Code

6
What food products require a label?

• Most food for sale in NZ must be labelled in
  English
• Not required for
• Food made and packaged on premises
• Packaged in presence of purchaser
• Ready to eat delivered food
• Whole or cut fresh fruit in clear packaging
• Food at fundraising events
• Food not in a package
• Food in inner package not designed for sale
  without outer package eg small bags potato chips

7
What must be on label?

• Name of food
• Food recall details
• Name and address of supplier
• Mandatory warning statements and declaration of
  certain ingredients eg royal jelly, coffee
  (potential health risks), allergy causing foods,
  even for unpackaged and small packs
• Ingredient list

8
What must be on a label-2?

• Food additives
• Date marking-with shelf life lt 2 years, one of
  use by, best before or baked on
• Directions for use and storage
• Nutrition information panel (exemptions)
• Percentage labelling
• Net content-eg weight/volume

9
Percentage labelling

• Percentage of key ingredients in a product must
  now be shown
• Key ingredient may not be main ingredient by
  weight but will give food its character
• Eg will now be able to tell what percentage of
  strawberry jam is made up of strawberries

10
Food Allergies

• New labelling laws ensure that main allergy
  causing foods are declared on label
• ie peanuts, seafood, fish, gluten, milk,
  soybeans, eggs

11
Nutritional labelling

• Now mandatory for energy (kj), protein, fat with
  saturated fat separately, carbohydrate with total
  sugars separately, sodium.
• Other nutrients must be declared if a claim is
  made eg iron, calcium
• Eg cholesterol-must declare cholesterol and
  trans, poly and mono
• Eg type of fat-must declare the same

12
Example 1 Nutrition Information Panel Minimum
requirements
13
Example 3 Nutrition Panel for a product that
also has a claim about a type of Fat or
cholesterol on its packaging
14
Nutrition claims

• Describes or compares the level of a nutrient in
  a food eg high in fibre, low fat
• Negative claims eg no added sugar
• Always check against NIP
• Under review

15
Health claims

• Links food with reducing risk of a disease
• Eg eating yoghurt reduces your risk of
  osteoporosis
• Can make nutrition claim yoghurt is good source
  of calcium
• Not permitted under FSC either on food or in
  advertising
• Exception is folate and reduced risk of spina
  bifida trialing this at present

16
Health claims-conflicting views

• Lead to healthier food choices
• OR
• Not only fail to deliver public good, may
  actually cause harm. Health message may be
  unsuitable or irrelevant for up to 50 of
  population
• Food industry using health claims despite
  prohibition

17
Addition of nutrients to food

• Restoration
• Nutrients lost during processing can be added to
  pre-processing levels
• Fortification
• Vitamins and minerals not normally found can be
  added in useful amounts eg iron to breakfast
  cereals (the percentage contribution to the RDI
  has to be given)

18
Why add nutrients to food?

• People may not be consuming adequate amounts of
  some nutrients eg iron, calcium
• Many do not make healthy food choices
• Less risk of overdosing compared to supplements.
  Foods provide more than one nutrient
• Increase in sales

19
Disadvantages of adding nutrients to food

• Healthy food choices less likely as people rely
  more on fortified products
• More expensive
• Risk of not getting unidentified nutrients such
  as anti-oxidants from food products
• Narrower selection of foods and total neglect of
  some nutrients

20
Note

• Some of healthiest food may be unlabelled
• Eg fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, pulses, fresh
  meat and fish