The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Christopher Pyne, said that he welcomed the new standard.

“Australian consumers have indicated that they wish to know the country of origin of their products. The new standard means that they will be able to go into a supermarket, or their local shop, and be able to clearly see which country any packaged food or unpackaged fruit, vegetable, nut, seafood and fresh pork, ham and bacon product comes from,” Mr Pyne said.

The new standard includes:

• broadening the scope to include unpackaged fresh pork, ham and bacon products and processed unpackaged seafood, vegetables, nuts and fruit;

• a requirement that unpackaged products included in the standard have a specific country-of-origin label – not just a statement that the product is imported;

• distinct statement of origin information on packaged products;

• a requirement for country of origin declarations for packaged and unpackaged foods to be consistent with trade practices legislation and trade practices law; and

• strengthened requirements for legibility and print size on labels and signs used to declare the country of origin for unpackaged foods.