Foodlegal Bulletin Archive

Welcome to the September 2011 issue of FoodLegal Bulletin

We are excited about our upcoming Symposium. Hurry to secure a seat below.

This issue of FoodLegal Bulletin begins with a FREE article on Current Developments in Food Law and Food Policy.

Our second article, A Series on Sweeteners: Aspartame is the first in a series of articles on regulatory policy issues in relation to different sweeteners in the Australian and international marketplace. Future articles will consider Stevia and other natural sweeteners.

Our article Legal Collars and Glue: The Law of Starch in Australia explores the regulatory approaches to Starch in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. This ancient material is a necessity in modern food manufacture whilst appearing in many new guises with a range of regulatory effects.  

Often on different sides of politics, CHOICE and the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) have come together to propose a Supermarket Ombudsman. In our article, Supermarket Ombudsman: What might  this role become? we examine the joint submission from CHOICE and the AFGC to the Senate Committee examining the impact of the milk price wars.

Certification of a standard is a vital process in the making of food quality standards and safety assurance standards. However, who certifies the certifier? Can the quality and consistency of the certification processes themselves be assured? We examine this and other questions in our article, Who Certifies the Certifiers? The ongoing contest between industry QA people and government regulators.

Class actions (or representative proceedings) are on the rise in Australia. In our article, Class Actions and the Food Industry we provide the legislative framework of class actions in Australia and discuss important court cases of relevance to the food industry.

On 10 October 2011, our symposium Healthy Bodies of Law: Food or Therapeutic? Finding Advantages in the Regulatory Differences at The Menzies Hotel in Sydney has a top line-up of experts speaking. This symposium is a MUST for all those interested in foods or beverages with health-oriented functions, or sport drinks, energy drinks or supplements, and lots more about the regulatory choices to be considered for innovative food or therapeutic products, and rules and techniques for marketing such products. Bookings essential. Book NOW to avoid disappointment.

Happy reading!

Welcome to the August 2011 issue of FoodLegal Bulletin

We are excited about our upcoming symposium. Hurry to secure a seat below.

This issue of FoodLegal Bulletin begins with a FREE article on Current Developments in Food Law and Food Policy.

Our second article is about FSANZ’s new Code Interpretation Service and explores the problems with workings and potential issues.

Our article Protecting privacy for your product development highlights the importance of protecting commercial secrets and how to use Legal Professional Privilege.

In our article, “When did roughage become so complex?” we examine the regulatory position of dietary fibre, definitions and analytical methodologies.

Parallel imports have become a major issue especially as some retailers of food and beverages attempt to bypass the Australian distributors by sourcing look-alike products offshore. We examine this in our article Parallel importing and traceability: Does grey stock pose a food safety risk?

Australia’s federal system has resulted in regulatory differences in food law enforcement between different Australian State jurisdictions. We contrast different food law enforcement approaches of each State and Territory in our article Food Safety Regimes: Differences between Australian States.

On 10 October 2011, our symposium “Health Bodies of Law: Food or Therapeutic? Finding Advantages in the Regulatory Differences” at The Menzies Hotel in Sydney has a top line-up of experts speaking. This symposium is a MUST for all those interested in foods or beverages with health-oriented functions, or sport drinks, energy drinks or supplements, and lots more about the regulatory choices to be considered for innovative food or therapeutic products, and rules and techniques for marketing such products. Bookings essential. Book NOW to avoid disappointment.

Happy reading!

Welcome to this June-July 2011 bumper issue of FoodLegal Bulletin.

This issue of FoodLegal Bulletin begins with the FREE article telling “A Tale of Two Governments” and recent food security policy announcements at the Federal and State levels and commenting on some red issues that need to be addressed.

Our second FREE article on Current Developments in Food Law and Policy in Australia and Elsewhere targets the latest legal and policy developments in the food and beverage industries.

Our article on FSANZ’s “Code Maintenance” changes released for public comment in May highlights issues that may affect many food and beverage companies and we alert you to a number of surprises.

Our article Slimming Claims and Substantiation of Weight Loss Claims considers how developments in the EU may impact on similar issues that are being now discussed in Australia.

Our article on GM adventitious presence looks at legal issues and possible solutions and remedies associated with the cross pollination of GM crops with non-GM or organic crops.

Our article “Plastics in Food: Natural Migration or Border Jumping” is about chemical migration from packaging to food in light of recent food safety scandals around the world. The article examines Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) surveys and questions FSANZ’s methodologies.

Following the recent E.Coli outbreak in German and in other contexts, we examine the FSANZ proposed processing safety food standard for the horticultural industry in our article “European E.coli puts spotlight on Australian horticultural regulation and practices: Irradiation no longer old hat?”.

FoodLegal will be running a symposium on 10^th October 2011 in Sydney on marketing laws and opportunities relating to functional foods, special purpose foods, dietary supplements and complementary medicines. Please diarize it. More details to be released very soon.

Happy reading!

Joe Lederman 

Welcome to our May 2011 issue of FoodLegal Bulletin. 

We begin this issue with a FREE article on the most recent meeting of the Australia New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council on 6 May 2011. The issues covered were caffeinated food and beverages, a new policy regarding infant foods, regulatory action in relation to folic acid fortification of flour, foreshadowed policies on a national publicity approach for food outlets safety, and food labelling reform recommendations.   

Our second FREE article this month outlines other Additional recent developments in food law and policy with additional updates of food industry regulatory affairs news. 

Our article “The Blewett Review: Legislation, Compliance and Enforcement”features the detailed full presentation by Dr Christopher Reynolds, a member of the Blewett Review Panel, at FoodLegal’s “Blewett Between the Lines” symposium held in Sydney at the end of March 2011. 

Recent research studies have shown that health-oriented monikers have significant influence on consumer psychology. Our article “The regulatory implications of research findings about health-oriented monikers or pseudonyms” examines academic research about consumer perceptions and its food regulatory policy implications. 

In our article “How mandatory should Country of Origin Labelling be?”, we contrast Australia’s mandatory system for country of origin labelling with New Zealand’s voluntary system and evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of each scheme. 

Our article “EU concerns over meat binding agents” examines the regulatory scheme for binding agents in Australia in the context of recent EU arguments.

Our article “Legibility, font sizes and the recommendations of the Blewett Review” addresses some of the Blewett labelling reform recommendations.

Happy reading!

Welcome to the April 2011 issue of FoodLegal Bulletin

Our “Blewett Between the Lines” FoodLegal Symposium in Sydney in late March was well-attended. Check out some of the photos here. We received very good feedback from attendees. Most said they gained a lot of practical information from each of the speakers. The Symposium introduced different viewpoints from the speakers, who included members of the Blewett Labelling Review Panel, a leading university academic, and the spokesman of Australia’s leading consumer advocacy organisation. FoodLegal lawyers also provided legal analysis and a critique of numerous recommendations contained in the Blewett Panel Report. Participants also had the opportunity at the FoodLegal Symposium to network and catch up on food industry gossip.

We begin this issue with a FREE article on Recent Developments in Food Law and Food Policies.

This FoodLegal Bulletin also expounds on some of the issues brought to the fore by the Blewett Panel Report, including my article Sweet cereals don’t justify bitter medicine from food regulators. The article explains how the Blewett recommendation on removing the important distinction between eligibility requirements for nutrition claims as against health claims, is likely to have a counter-productive effect if accepted. In particular, the article explains how innovation would be hampered but suggests a possible alternative solution.

The recommendation of the Blewett Panel Report favouring a specific form of Traffic Lights Scheme is analysed in the article entitled A suggested solution to make Traffic Lights Labelling meaningful. The article explains flaws in the Blewett Panel recommendations for its proposed form of front-of-pack labelling. The article suggests more meaningful ways for governments to allow a health message to be conveyed.

In the article entitled Can the Blewett Panel push for private standards and industry self-regulation work, the increasing relevance of private standards and their interaction and effectiveness in law are compared with other forms of government regulation.

A discussion about the tensions between national food law requirements and the encouragement of international free trade emerges out of the recent AAT decision is considered in the article AQIS denies Free Trade argument in Red Bull blockage.

The article How much of a bad thing: A review of food sampling in enforcement and legal remedies for food companies provides an overview of Australia’s food sample-taking laws, which ought to be of high relevance to all food businesses.

Happy reading!

Welcome to our March 2011 issue of FoodLegal Bulletin.

I recently attended the annual Australian Dairy Conference. It was held this year in Busselton, WA. Australian farmers face many challenges, and dairy farmers are caught between low prices offered by the major milk processors and the commodification of their branded products by the supermarkets. Meanwhile, milk processors have been faring better in international markets as food commodity prices increase rapidly reflecting food scarcity challenges that are also catalysing political crises across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

This month also, our upcoming Symposium “Blewett Between the Lines” (at the cost of only $295 inc GST per person) will update those who have registered to attend on a wide range of food labelling changes being foreshadowed ahead.

We begin this issue with a free summary of Recent Developments in Food Law and Policy to update our readers on what has been happening in realm of food compliance laws. 

Our second free article in this issue relates to more criticisms of the Heart Foundation Tick program.

The release of a recent fact sheet by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is the basis for our third free article “Is FSANZ’s approach to Quorn TM consistent with previous decisions?”

In February 2011, FoodLegal Bulletin analysed a current case and we provided a legal checklist for suppliers and buyers to protect their legal rights in supplier-buyer relationships. In this issue, our article “Technical and Regulatory Issues of Packaging Affecting Taste: from pallet to plate” provides checklists for risk management of food packaging issues and examines some of the regulatory weaknesses of the Food Standards Code in relation to new packaging technologies.

In our article “Red Bull in dispute over the Trans-Tasman Route”, we provide some background analysis of the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Agreement and consider the tensions between free trade and Australian domestic food laws.

New advances have been made in label scanning technologies. Our article “Do we need more laws about barcodes, QR code, RFID and other new label scanning technologies?” looks at barcode technology developments, and the relevant legal frameworks.

In the last of the free articles of this issue, we question how a recent FSANZ Media Release about a medical study of folate fortification was not in fact supported by the findings of the relevant study. 

On behalf of the FoodLegal team, I extend our thoughts and sympathies to all those who have been adversely affected by the devastating Queensland floods, and to the victims of floods elsewhere in western Victoria, New South Wales, Carnarvon and the Tasmanian North-West. 

The big story this month in food law is the release of the Blewett Review Report on Food Labelling Law and Policy. We discuss this development and others happening in the area of food law in our FREE article “Recent Food Law and Policy Developments”, and a second FREE Article about the Blewett Review Report. 

FoodLegal will be running a half-day morning symposium on Monday 28 March 2011 in Sydney at The Menzies Hotel. Pre-booking is essential as places are limited. Click for more details. 

There is a common misconception that all brand names and trademarks confer extra legal protection against government enforcement actions for potentially misleading claims. In our article “Legal protection in registered brand names can be illusory”, we explore new legal developments arising out of recent ACCC actions effectively banning some well-known brands from future usage, and explore the laws about when food can be described as FRESH. 

In this issue, our article outlining “Marketing Lessons from the latest fruit depiction cases in Australia and the USA” provides commentary and analysis on recent Australian and US cases or enforcement action involving fruit depiction on food packaging and in advertising. 

Several health-affirming functional food relationships concerning links between nutrition and health effects have been in the news over the past couple of months. Our article “Newest Health Claims highlight the need for a better health claims approach” considers two recent nutritional breakthroughs and provides commentary on the legal impediments for any food company wanting to refer to these scientific breakthroughs in their marketing. We also pose some practical solutions for governments to consider. 

Food contamination can cause heavy losses for any food business. In our article “Legal issues of contaminated ingredients for suppliers and customers”, we consider a recent court case that involved a food contamination and provide a summary of the legal lessons. This is a Must-read article for anyone who is in the business of selling or buying food. 

Happy reading!

Joe Lederman

Managing Principal and Editor

FoodLegal Bulletin