So which new CoOL logo do you prefer?

As a result of the whole berries and possible hepatitis A event which happened recently, the Australian Government has just released it’s ideas for a logo to show whether the amount of ingredients in a food is more or less than 50 percent.

Although many people and the media seemed to be confused in believing that labelling for country of origin was a food safety issue, labelling is actually only about providing information.

The safety of the food coming into this country is set in the Food Standards Code, they are the same standards as those for food made in this country.

Australians are recognised as being parochial when it comes to knowing where our food comes from, and this demand, which intensified with the berry incident, is what has driven this move by the Government.

The Code currently has two origin labelling options; “Made in Australia” and “Product of Australia”, with the second option having the highest content of Australian material.

The new proposal is all based on the percentage of ingredients and whether a food has less than 50% or more than 50%. It is intended to make it easier for consumer to understand the Australian contect of a food, so they can make decisions as required.

The content will be represented by a logo and six were released for review,  and can be found on the website below
  
The public have been invited to have a say about which logo is prefers, by undertaking a survey.

The familiar “Australian made kangaroo”, which is already owned by the Government, seems to be the front runner to date. The survey is open until August 2015 as part of the review period.

Depending upon which of the logos will eventually be required, there will be the usual phase in period, depending upon the type of product, to allow manufacturers to run down old packaging stock before buying that with the logo. So we will probably see the new logo appearing in our supermarket next year.

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said “They’re not satisfied with something that just simply says ‘Made in Australia from local and imported produce,’ that means nothing to them.”

For more information go to –http://www.industry.gov.au/industry/IndustrySectors/FoodManufacturingIndustry/Pages/Country-of-Origin-Labelling.aspx

Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.