By Joe Lederman and Charles Fisher More on recent food law developments including:
Resolution to Inulin question for infant formula On 11 November 2008, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (‘FSANZ’) released the First Review Report for Proposal P306 – Addition of Inulin/FOS & GOS to Food. The FSANZ Report states that inulin-derived substances are not a nutritive substance; the Report goes on to recommend that voluntary addition of inulin to infant formula products be permitted. This Report appears to resolve the question of law in the Nutricia case, where the New South Wales Food Authority had sought a mandatory recall of a Nutricia infant formula product containing inulin, based on the NSW Food Authority’s interpretation that inulin was a ‘nutritive substance’. While the question of law has been effectively resolved by the FSANZ Report, irrespective of the litigation pursued by the NSW Food Authority - which we reported inour article “Food Industry confusion over Inulin and other Nutritive Substances following the Nutricia Court Proceedings” in the September 2007 issue of FoodLegal Bulletin. FSANZ approves voluntary fortification of bottled water with fluoride On 11 November 2008, FSANZ released the Draft Assessment Report for Application A588 – Voluntary Addition of Fluoride to Packaged Water. This Application was brought by the Australian Beverages Council Ltd to allow fluoride to be added packaged water and allow the labels of such products to claim the addition of the fluoride. FSANZ will be accepting submissions on this Application until 23 December 2008. Contaminated pork products from Ireland may have entered Australia On 6 December 2008, the Irish Government announced that dioxins had been detected in pork and that all pork and pork products had been recalled. Dioxins can be carcinogenic in humans although the “Irish authorities have advised that there is no health risk from short term exposure”. FSANZ has announced that, in conjunction with the Australian Customs Service and the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Scheme, no fresh pigmeat, bacon or ham from Ireland will be permitted entry in Australia. The FSANZ Fact Sheet also acknowledges the possibility that some contaminated processed pork products may have already entered Australia. For previous FoodLegal Bulletin commentary on pork imports, see also "Legal Action by Australian Pork Producers Against Director of Australian Quarantine" in the October 2005 issue or "Pork Industry: A case study on use of evidence in a Productivity Commission Inquiry" in the February 2008 issue. Plastic bag ban introduced in South Australia The Plastic Bag (Waste Avoidance) Bill 2008 was recently passed in both Houses of the South Australian Parliament. Despite only recently being passed, the ban will commence on 1 January 2009 with a grace period of just 4 months. This short transition period has understandably brought about criticism from industry, especially since a retailer failing to provide an alternative to a plastic shopping bag creates an offence with a penalty of up to $5000. There is the possibility of exemptions through Regulations; however no such Regulations have been drafted as yet to accompany the gazettal of the Bill. The efficacy of this ban will be assessed and, despite its quick introduction into the law, may start a trend among other Australian States and Territories. Government control of GROCERYChoice website has been relinquished to consumer advocacy group Possibly as a result of the stinging criticism issued by the Australian Retailers Association, the control of the Federal government ACCC's GROCERYChoice website has been given to consumer advocacy group, Choice. The website had been introduced after the ACCC’s Grocery Inquiry as a measure to try and improve competition between supermarket groups. However, the website was only updated monthly and, as it highlighted the value of certain products, was labelled by the Australian Retailers Association as “brand promotion” by the Australian government of major supermarket groups. Over the three months of existence of the GROCERYChoice website, hits dropped 97% which resulted in Senator Xenaphon stating “Clearly it isn’t providing useful information to consumers”. Whether control by Choice will have any impact on the GROCERYChoice website or on supermarket competition remains to be seen.
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