Labelling claims must be true and permitted

Chapter One of the Food Standards Code contains the labelling requirements for food in Australia and New Zealand. It allows for specific claims and businesses are not permitted to make claims unless stated in the Code.

There has recently been a review of the labelling requirements and as part of this there will be changes made to what claims are allowed and how they may be written.

Alongside these requirements are those allowed according to our Trade Practices Act. This Act has a variety of parts but the fundamental principle throughout is that businesses can only make claims on their labelling that is true and can be substantiated.

Recently, one of the country’s largest poultry producers has been ordered to pay AU$ 100,000 penalty for making a misleading claim.

In this case the misleading claim on the packaging was that the birds in the producer’s sites in New South Wales and Victoria were “free to roam” This was found through an investigation by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission to be incorrect and the Melbourne Federal Court heard that in fact, each bird had only the space equivalent of an A4 piece of paper.

This case and the resulting penalty, including the national advertisement that the producer had to do in newspapers, shows that making claims that are not true to get more sales or improve reputation is not acceptable and that businesses that do so will be caught and punished.